Energy industry has demand for engineers

Daily News
Wednesday 21/5/2008 Page: 18

IT is estimated that Australia's burgeoning energy industry will need an additional 1500 to 2000 workers within the next five years to meet growth and retirements from the industry, according to the Australian Power Institute's chief executive Mike Griffin.

The Australian Power Institute is a not-for-profit national organisation established in 2004 by the electricity power industry to boost the quality and numbers of power engineering graduates with the skills and motivation for a career in the energy industry. Mr Griffin said there were some 5000 professionals that work in the energy sector including production, power generation, transmission, distribution, consultation and manufacturing. "In the professional engineering sector, the age group is skewered to the over-50s.

Couple that with the huge capital programs and infrastructure growth for most utilities in the energy sector, there will be a huge demand for power engineers," Mr Griffin said. "It is estimated that some $40 billion to $50 billion will be spent in the energy sector in the next decade.

"It's a tough ask to supply this skills gap, but the Australian Power Institute has developed a number of programs to encourage more people into a power engineering career." The institute is working hard to attract young graduates to the energy sector by awarding 40 bursaries for first-year engineering students across Australia that include valuable work experience in the industry.

"And we are close to launching a website aimed at Year 10 to 12 students to encourage them to pursue a career in power engineering," Mr Griffin said. "I asked a group of engineering graduates in Perth last week what was their motivating factor for joining the energy industry and more than 30% said it was because they were trying to make difference in regards to the renewable energy sector and our climate change concerns. "Young people can be part of the solution and this is an exciting time for the renewable energy industry and is a time when people can make an impact," he said.

"Graduates who have been in the energy sector for a couple of years overwhelmingly say that they initially had no idea of the breadth of experience they could gain in the industry sector." The institute invested $500,000 last year and $600,000 this year working with universities across Australia to improve the power engineering curriculum and provide laboratories and equipment to support young academics.

In addition, the Power Engineering Centre of Excellence has been launched with the help of a federal government Diversity Grant to specifically develop curriculum across seven universities for third and fourth-year power engineering students.