Incorporating TAFE training and apprenticeship requirements for data centres will ensure tech giants contribute to solving skills shortages.
The Victorian TAFE Association has welcomed today’s proposal by a broad alliance of industry and union organisations for stronger national measures to ensure Australia’s ever-expanding data centre sector delivers genuine benefits for local communities and the workforce.
The proposed principles covered in the plan – which include requirements for training and upskilling of electrical workers – align closely with the VTA’s long-standing commitment for skills-led approach to digital infrastructure growth.
With skills demand to build new data centres projected to rise significantly, the VTA believes that the sector’s expansion must be matched by investment in the skilled electrical and specialist workforce needed to build, work in, and maintain these massive facilities.
In Victoria, public TAFEs and dual sector universities train close to 70% of electrotech apprentices and deliver qualifications in trades critical for data centres and future industries, such as electricians, engineering, cybersecurity, IT, and advanced manufacturing.
Quotes attributable to Alex White, CEO of the Victorian TAFE Association:
“Australia cannot build a future-ready digital economy without investing in public TAFEs to train the people who power it.
“Data centres can contribute to Australia’s skills base with the public TAFE sector. That means training new apprentices, and upskilling workers who can build the data centres and then go on to work in other vital sectors like housing, energy transition and essential services.
“A strong, well-funded TAFE system is vital to ensuring that benefits of data centre investment – jobs and innovation – are shared across Victoria.”