- Solar energy is booming. However, the industry lacks skilled workers.
- From summer 2024, there will be two new apprenticeships in the Swiss solar industry: solar installer and solar fitter.
- The interest of young learners is there. More and more training companies are also being added.
Roofs all over the country are being covered with solar panels. But the industry lacks qualified specialists to manage the growth and expansion of solar energy.
The Swiss solar industry already has around 10,000 full-time positions. According to the Swissolar association, by 2030 there will be twice as many. For this reason, two new apprenticeships will be on the apprenticeship market from August this year: solar installer and solar fitter. The two new vocational apprenticeships are intended to counteract the shortage of skilled workers.
Legend:
The two new apprenticeships will not compensate for the shortage of skilled workers in the solar industry, but they are at least a step.
Keystone/Christian Beutler
In fact, young people want to become solar installers, as Chantal Huser from the Polybau education center knows. Polybau is already training roofers and facade builders and will be conducting vocational training in solar system construction starting this summer.
Around 30 apprenticeship contracts have already been signed, she says. But: “It would be wrong to say that the doors are being knocked down; This is more likely to happen in companies that are asked directly by young people for apprenticeships.” The 30 apprenticeship contracts at the end of March correspond to expectations, Huser continued.
It would be wrong to say that our doors are being knocked down.
In addition, new apprenticeships and thus apprentices are constantly being added because the cantons would approve even more companies as training companies. “We have around 60 companies that have now been officially approved by the cantons,” says Huser. They all train young people in new professions.
A step for the future
A survey of larger and smaller companies shows that young people are definitely interested in apprenticeships.
For example, Micha Berger, who runs the Xeeo solar system construction company in the canton of Bern, says that there is a stable number of inquiries for the advertised apprenticeships without the company having to do much about it. You will be able to choose the learners from several interested young people.
Still too few skilled workers
Despite the positive development, the two new apprenticeships for solar fitter and solar installer will not solve the shortage of skilled workers in the booming solar system construction. There are too few for that.
For Micha Berger, however, it is an important step for the future – twofold: it would not only bring more qualified specialists with recognized certificates of skills onto the job market. The industry, as well as the product, will continue to improve with the future skilled workers. The new apprenticeship also brings more quality to solar system construction.
The solar professions now need time to establish themselves: the first solar installers are trained in three years in the summer.