Shadow Minister for Skills, James Milligan is calling on the ACT Labor-Greens government to develop courses for “space tradies” to ensure that Canberra can benefit from the growth of the Australian space industry.

It was revealed in Estimates Hearings on Monday that CIT currently offers no courses to develop these trades.

“Space Tradies include people with vocational and trade training who can build antenna systems, fabricate rocket bodies and tune radio frequency devices,” Mr Milligan said.

“The ACT is already home to several leading Space companies as well as hosting the Australian headquarters of several international aerospace and defence primes.

“ACT universities graduate high quality Space engineers and scientists; however, we hear from industry there is a large workforce gap when it comes to so-called “Space Tradies”.

“The ACT government may say the space industry is an area of focus but a lack of skilled tradies and no plan to address the gap will see Canberra lose jobs of the future to other Australian jurisdictions.

“I call on the ACT government to act with urgency to introduce courses to develop the space tradies needed to ensure jobs of the future are retained in Canberra and to ensure Canberra develops a world-leading space industry.”

Mr Milligan also expressed his disappointment that the ACT Budget failed to properly address and find the skills shortage facing the ACT.

“This ACT Labor-Greens government has continually failed to address the skills and apprenticeship shortages in the ACT, particularly providing funding or subsidies for the sector across the broadest range of providers, especially outside of the CIT.

“It is clear there needs to be broader investment in skills and training in the ACT to meet the future needs of the ACT, but the Minister appears to have no desire to address this significant problem,” Mr Milligan concluded.