Federation TAFE's world-leading renewable energies training centre will receive a $6 million injection if Labor wins this month's state election.
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The money would see classrooms, workshops and training equipment built to deliver specialised training courses including wind turbine maintenance and blade repair.
"This means we can deliver the built infrastructure that will allow delivery of wind turbine technician training, which will be a first for Australia and encompass electrical, mechanical and automotive trades to deliver the next generation of turbine technicians," said Federation TAFE associate director partnerships and growth Bill Mundy.
The first stage of the Asia Pacific Renewable Energy Training Centre involved construction of the centre's 23m high wind turbine maintenance training tower in conjunction with Federation TAFE's industry partners in the renewable energy sector.
The stage two funds will help construct the large teaching spaces needed to house wind turbine components including nacelles, generators and blades.
Mr Mundy said, when completed, the centre will train about 600 people a year in a combination of short and long courses on all facets of wind turbines including height-based training, blade technician and turbine technician training.
The first dedicated program for apprentice blade repair technicians will begin next February.
"We will be leading the nation in terms of the skills across the wind energy sector and ... with the centres for new energy transmission and planning in Gippsland Federation will be home for both vocational training and higher education training when it comes to entering into the renewable energy sector," he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews made the announcement as part of a broad range of TAFE reforms while visiting Federation TAFE and touring the APRETC's training tower.
The money for Federation TAFE is part of a $50 million Clean Energy Fund amid an up to $170m investment that Labor has promised the TAFE sector if it is returned to office.
The investment in renewable energy training ties in to a key Labor election promise to end reliance on coal and revive the State Electricity Commission, to create 59,000 jobs in clean energy of which at least 6000 jobs will be for apprentices and trainees.
"This is all about making sure as we bring back the SEC that we have the workers we need with the skills that are essential to go to 100 per cent renewable electricity, to cut power bills and set up ... every family for a much better future," Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews also announced that free TAFE courses would now be available to people with higher level qualifications who want to return to study, and students would be allowed allow to undertake more that one free TAFE course when they are continuing a training pathway.
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"At the moment if you have an arts degree from a university you can't go to TAFE and access a free TAFE course because the system regards a TAFE qualification as being less than an arts degree. I know better, I think everyone does, that the jobs aren't necessarily in that pathway - the jobs are TAFE that's where the jobs are coming from the vocational educational training and competency based learning."
Federation University vice chancellor Professor Duncan Bentley said training in the renewable energy sector needed to increase dramatically to meet demand.
"By 2050 we will have to have double the energy production for the population of Victoria than we have now. To be able to do that, which will be mostly in renewables, we will need at least 15,000 to 20,000 more jobs," he said.
"This training centre has to have a significant increase in throughput to be able to provide those jobs as we don't want to be importing them from other parts of Australia or overseas."
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