Based on our remit and this consultation’s scope, our submission primarily focuses on the automotive industry and the implications of the proposed changes to ANZSCO for it. This is because the number and nature of these changes are more relevant and significant to our work as a JSC, we have a greater interest in proposing changes to ANZSIC with respect to the mining industry, and overall, we do not have any substantive comments on the minor title changes proposed for some ANZSCO mining occupations. Further, the proposed changes to automotive occupations have inter-industry implications for the mining industry, due to its reliance on some automotive occupations for repairing and maintaining trucks and other mobile plant equipment.¹

To this end, we also wish to note that our automotive Strategic Workforce Advisory Panel, which brings together key industry stakeholders under our tripartite structure, endorsed this submission.

Changes to ANZSCO we largely support

AUSMASA supports most of the proposed changes to ANZSCO’s automotive occupations, namely: changing ‘321211 Motor Mechanics (General)’ to ‘321215 Automotive Technician (General)’; ‘321213 Motorcycle Mechanic’ to ‘321213 Motorcycle Technician’; and, changing ‘321212 Diesel Motor Mechanic’ to ‘321221 Diesel Technician’. For some time, the industry has highlighted that the term ‘mechanic’ perpetuates outdated and inaccurate views that can negatively affect candidate recruitment.²

Unfortunately, however, ‘324111 Panelbeater’ is also outdated and remains unchanged – we understand industry would prefer a title like ’Vehicle Body Repair Technician’. In addition to these proposed changes, AUSMASA also supports the introduction of ‘321216 Marine Technician’ as another, dedicated automotive occupation.

Key change to ANZSCO we do not support

AUSMASA does not support the proposed addition of ‘Electric Vehicle Technician’ as a specialisation to the ‘321111 Automotive Electrician’ occupation. First and foremost, this is because specialisations do not provide a unique 6-digit occupation code to support tracking and reporting on electrification at an inter-industry, within-industry, or across-occupation level – when electrification is a key challenge and opportunity for our industries as they shift to repair and maintain light EVs and electrify trucks and mobile plant equipment.³

As a result, we could only track VET student commencements, enrolments, and completions using NCVER data on courses like the Certificate III in Automotive Electric Vehicle Technology and its associated skillsets – with no ability to link or compare these to EV technicians in the workforce using ANZSCO. We believe that ANZSCO should instead adopt at least one dedicated 6-digit code for EV technicians.

At the same time, we could not track or report on EV technician apprentice commencements, enrolments, and completions under the proposed changes due to NCVERs use of the ANZSCO structure. One consequence of this is that we could not measure the success (or otherwise) of policies designed to increase the size of the clean energy workforce by bolstering apprenticeship numbers. For example, we consider the Australian Government’s New Energy Apprenticeships Program will likely increase the number of EV technicians through payments at course commencement, at the end of each year of study, and again at course completion.⁴

However, the Program supports 29 courses captured by the existing ‘321211 Motor Mechanic (General)’ occupation, including Certificate III in Automotive Electric Vehicle Technology and Certificate III in Light Vehicle Mechanical Technology, which also has scope to cover EVs.⁵

Due to this and the proposed addition of ‘Electric Vehicle Technician’ as a specialisation only, we will not be able to separate EV apprentice technicians from all other apprentice technicians using this NCVER data.

Our final concern with adding ‘Electric Vehicle Technician’ as a specialisation to the ‘321111 Automotive Electrician’ occupation relates to its suitability. In reality, automotive technicians (or motor mechanics) typically service and repair EVs, with New South Wales seeking to introduce new repair and licensing classes for light and heavy EV technicians based on Certificate III in Automotive Electric Vehicle Technology and its associated skillsets.⁶

Since this ANZSCO proposal is specific and limited to ‘321111 Automotive Electrician’, New South Wales’ approach will not align with this ANZSCO occupation, which could inaccurately capture technicians who specialise in EVs or lead to their misclassification as ‘321215 Automotive Technician (General)’ – artificially skewing data based on ANZSCO by comparison. Lastly, the repair and maintenance of EVs can include a range of tasks involving brakes, suspension, and other mechanical systems that better align with the work of automotive technicians than that of automotive electricians.

Taken together, we consider that these issues with adding ‘Electric Vehicle Technician’ as a specialisation solely to the ‘321111 Automotive Electrician’ occupation will limit and potentially compromise our annual cycle of workforce plans and related work that we must complete as a JSC. Admittedly, uptake of the VET sector’s primary pathways for EV technicians – the Certificate III in Automotive Electric Vehicle Technology and its associated skillsets – remains low as EVs only comprise about 1% of the total vehicle fleet.⁷

However, even the most conservative projections suggest EVs will comprise close to 10% of the total fleet by 2030, equating to at least 2 million vehicles.⁸

This is likely to lead to considerable demand for new, EV-dedicated technicians and retraining within the existing workforce, which we will not be able to track accurately or report on under the proposed changes to ANZSCO. For these reasons, we propose that ANZSCO adopt at least one dedicated 6-digit code for EV technicians.

1 Australia's Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance. Industry Workforce Plan - Moving Ahead Together. 2024.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Australian Apprenticeships Priority List. 2024.
5 Ibid.
6 New South Wales Fair Trading. Proposed changes to repair classes and qualifications: Remake of the Motor Vehicle Dealers and Repairers Regulation 2014. 2024.
7 Electric Vehicle Council. Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap 2023. 2023.
8 Graham, P. Electric vehicle projections 2023: update to the 2022 projections report Commissioned for AEMO’s draft 2024 Forecasting Assumptions Update. 2023, December.