Skills Lab (A SAGE Group company) is an Industry 4.0 Registered Training Organisation (RTO) created specifically to meet the demand for high-quality learning. Skills Lab draws on the expertise of this pool of engineers and technicians, assisting many organisations around Australia and internationally through their digital transformation. Being industry-led, the company has recognised a shortage of technology skills in Australia, particularly in Smart Grid and Energy technologies. The objective of the current project is to contextualise the existing Diploma of Applied Technologies (DAT) course to be relevant to the Smart Grid and Emerging Energy sector.

Skills Lab: Upskilling the Workforce for the Future of Industry 4.0

In today's ever-evolving industrial landscape, businesses are under increasing pressure to stay ahead of the curve, particularly in the area of Industry 4.0. A critical component of achieving this goal is upskilling and empowering the workforce with the latest knowledge and technical expertise. This is where Skills Lab, a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), comes in.

A SAGE Group company, Skills Lab was established to provide high-quality, hands-on learning experience that addresses the current and future needs of the industry. Skills Lab draws on a pool of engineers and technicians from within the SAGE Group who specialise in Industry 4.0 and deliver digital transformation solutions for leading organisations. The trainers at Skills Lab are industry experts who work at the forefront of their field, providing learners with the latest knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the digital era.

One of the major areas of focus for Skills Lab is the shortage of technology skills in Australia, particularly in the area of Smart Grid and Energy technologies. To address this, the training organisation embarked on a project to contextualise the learning outcomes from the Diploma of Applied Technologies (DAT) to serve this immediate need. The objective of this project is to align content and assessment materials specifically curated for the Smart Grid energy sector, using realistic modeling of a simulated microgrid network with hardware-in-the-loop and real-time big data sets. This innovative approach will provide learners with hands-on experience in a safe and controlled environment, preparing them for the real-world challenges they may face in their roles.

One of the key differentiators of Skills Lab's training approach is its hands-on learning style. The company uses industry equipment and approaches the training in the manner those in the industry would deliver the task. This lends itself to Industry 4.0 training, enabling learners to operate remote applications and simulate real-world scenarios. The training is delivered face to face from one of the company's four state-of-the-art labs across Australia or remotely using Skills Lab’s cyber-physical training capability, which is live, face-to-face training that has students conducting work as they would be if they were sitting together in a training facility – all without needing to be physically present.

Skills Lab's expertise in customised training programmes is one of their key offerings. Over the past 14 years, the company designed bespoke training programmes for organisations across Australia and India in all facets of industrial digitalisation. This involves reverse engineering an integrated system to design a training program, discussing with the team to determine key learning requirements, and addressing a skills gap; Skills Lab has a proven capability to design and deliver highly technical, relevant, and applied learning for maintainers, operators, and engineers.

Skills Lab is an industry leader in upskilling and empowering the workforce with the latest knowledge and technical expertise needed to thrive in the digital era. By providing hands-on, tailored training programs, the company is helping to close the technology skills gap in Australia and prepare learners for the challenges of Industry 4.0. Whether learners are apprentices, technicians, data analysts, senior engineers, or simply interested in lifelong learning, Skills Lab has a training program to meet their needs.