National Occupation Licensing System - electrical fitter

On 30 April 2009, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed an agreement for a National Occupation Licensing System (NOLS) for economically important trades. The objective of establishing a national licensing system was to remove overlapping and inconsistent regulation between jurisdictions in the way they license occupational areas.

The NOLS primarily aims to help improve business efficiency and competitiveness of the national economy, reduce red tape, improve labour mobility and enhance productivity.

The Productivity Commission has estimated that the economic benefits of a national licensing system will be between $1.5bn and $4.5bn per year to the national economy. These benefits will accrue to all states and territories, across both the public and private sectors. There is also significant potential to mitigate the effects of local peaks in skills demand, whether caused by natural disasters or economic opportunity.

NOLS is set to be operational from 1 July 2012 for four occupational areas:

• Electrical
• Plumbing and gas fitting
• Refrigeration and air conditioning
• Property

One of the priority occupations identified by COAG for a national licence at this time is ‘Electrical fitter’. This occupation is of significance economic importance, underpinning the operation of many other industries utilising these services. Several industry sectors have shown interest in using the new national licence, including:

• Switchboard manufacturers
• Electrical maintenance sector
• Mining sector
• Defence forces

While industry support for the licence is strong and the benefits including increased workforce mobility, reduced red tape and improved business efficiency and competitiveness are well acknowledged, the whole system is contingent on the states and territories adopting uniform licensing regimes.

The COAG principles for NOLS state that jurisdictions which do not currently regulate a particular occupation will not be required to extend its licensing to cover the subgroup. This means that if all jurisdictions do not adopt a uniform licensing regime, workers operating in jurisdictions that do not introduce the licence will not be able to operate in other jurisdictions without undertaking additional gap training to gain the licence, thus inhibiting portability of workers. This could compromise the national value of the licence and the efficient benefits identified by the Productivity Commission.

If just one jurisdiction doesn’t take it up, it creates a real problem for the integrity of the licence nationally.

NESMA is strongly backing calls to switchboard manufacturers and industry customers for the new electrical fitter licence. NESMA industry customers include the mining and construction industries, electronic and electrical engineering; building, construction and property management; industrial automation; computer; data processing in financial, retail, hospital, hospitality and commercial applications; manufacturing and metal processing; energy and petroleum; transport, warehousing and workshop; industrial process and control engineering, including infrastructure and water and wastewater management; and safety.

Bob Taylor is Chief Executive Officer of EE-Oz Training Standards, the Australian Government declared Industry Skills Council for the electrocomms and energy utilities industries. He has extensive industry experience, having managed both small and large industry organisations over a period of 20 years. In his current role, he is responsible for providing advice to the ISC Board, industry and its training partners, overall management of the continuous improvement of the EE-Oz suite of National Training Packages, and the management of project contracts of national and international significance for training within the electrocomms and energy utilities industries.