When Traralgon 19-year-old Grace Harding was ready to enter the workforce, she knew she wanted to do something practical.
“I wanted to be more than an admin, I wanted to be hands-on,” she told reporters at a press conference in Delburn on Wednesday.
Out of high school, Harding started working as an admin for a construction company, but when a family member sent her a link to a six-week TAFE Gippsland course designed for women looking to enter the growing clean energy workforce, she saw it as an opportunity to step out of her comfort zone.
“I thought, ‘Why not do it? If I don’t like it, that’s okay’ - and I ended up loving it,” she said.
“It’s a big opportunity with all the power stations, battery hubs and windfarms going on at the moment.”
Harding was among the first cohort of 13 women to graduate from the Women in Trades Clean Energy Taster Program and she is now employed as a trainee operational health and safety advisor at the Delburn wind farm.
What’s happening: As more skilled workers are needed for the growing number of construction and maintenance jobs on clean energy projects, Tradeswomen Australia (TWA) is collaborating with TAFE Gippsland to create pathways for women to enter the workforce.
CEO of TWA, Clea Smith, told the Monitor the course aims to give women the skills and the confidence they need to step into an industry that has historically been heavily male-dominated.
Australia’s construction industry employs about 1.3 million people. However, only 14 percent (about 180,000) of these workers are women, making it one of the least gender-diverse industries in the country, according to research by UNSW Sydney.
“There are many societal barriers that have meant women haven't landed into these roles, so projects like this work to break down some of those barriers,” Smith said.
The second cohort of 13 students has started the program and Smith says TWA is aiming to make the course a permanent part of TAFE’s syllabus.
She hopes if other women see graduates in construction and trade roles it will have a knock-on effect. “You can't be what you can't see,” she said.
The Federal Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles, TAFE Gippsland graduate, Grace Harding, and CEO of Tradeswomen Australia, Clea Smith.
All hands on deck
It’s estimated the Delburn wind farm will require upwards of 300 full-time jobs during its construction.
“There are skill shortages, so we're going to need extra hands and legs with the capability to to roll and deliver these projects,” Smith said.
Federal Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles, told the Monitor: “Too many parts of the Australian workforce haven't been open to women to the extent they should be. If we are only looking at half the community, we're not going to fill those skill shortages.”
What windfarm?
The State Electricity Commission (SEC) took over development of the Delburn-based project in late 2025, making it Victoria’s first publicly-owned wind farm.
The farm will consist of 33 wind turbines that will generate 103 megawatts of energy (enough to power 130,000 homes).
Construction of the wind farm began in April 2027 and it’s expected to be up and running in 2028.
Executive General Manager of Assets at the SEC, Lane Crockett, told the Monitor the organisation was always looking to improve diversity in the workforce.