On Friday 10 November 2023, the Hon Richard Marles MP – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, and the Hon Peter Malinauskas MP – Premier of South Australia, released the South Australian Defence Industry Workforce and Skills Report and Action Plan.
To succeed in delivering SSN-AUKUS, continuous naval shipbuilding and sustainment, and other defence projects, South Australia will need to grow the capacity and capability of the industrial base.
Growing the workforce requires investment in the skills and job opportunities in the shipbuilding heartland of South Australia. It is a plan to create, train and retain the right people with the right skills in South Australia, as one of the nation’s greatest industrial undertaking is delivered.
The report helps to identify what is working, where the areas for development are, and where significant investment is needed to shape the capacity vital to building maritime capability. The plan contains 22 initiatives, designed in partnership with industry to have immediate and sustained impact – catering to current workforce demand and projected future need.
The South Australian Defence Industry Workforce and Skills Action Plan: 2024 Update, announced on 5 November 2024, outlines how each of the initiatives is progressing since the Plan’s launch and highlights both early successes and the next areas of concerted efforts.
The South Australian Defence Industry Workforce and Skills Taskforce, a joint Commonwealth and South Australian taskforce, worked together with defence industry, unions, the education and training sectors to develop initiatives to support South Australia’s future defence industry workforce needs.