$17m plan to skill Tasmanian workforce to fill energy jobs
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is back in Tasmania to energise his Battery of the Nation vision with funds to train the workers needed to build it.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison is back in Tasmania to energise his Battery of the Nation vision with funds to train the workers needed to build it.
Visiting Ulverstone this afternoon, Mr Morrison called into engineering firm VEC to announce a $17 million “Energising Tasmania” initiative to allow thousands of young Tasmanians to gain new skills at no upfront cost as work continues to make the the island state the Battery of the Nation.
Tomorrow morning he will speak at a Launceston Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
Mr Morrison repeated his line that an election that it would be held in May and announced later this month.
The skills initiative will knock $4500 off the cost of training for renewable energy jobs per worker.
What specific qualifications will qualify will be decided by the government in conjunction with Hydro Tasmania, other industry and the State Government but they are expected to include project management, civil construction, electro-technology, water industry operations and engineering.
“To build this project and make it work we need the second Bass Strait interconnector cable and pumped hydro but we also need a workforce to build it,” Mr Morrison said.
“This package is a Tasmania-specific program and is about ensuring there are the local specific skills to make the pumped hydro project a success.
“Every time I talk about this project and visit Tasmania I get another sense of its enormous potential.”
He labelled Tasmania the “turnaround state” and projects of this size, and said investment in young Tasmanians, were needed to maintain the momentum.
The skills announcement follows the PM’s visit to the Cethana Power Station in February during which he announced $86m towards the new Tasmanian hydro power project and a new Bass Strait transmission link.
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