The AV industry is making strides toward a formal education pathway and, in turn, national recognition. Sean Carroll finds out what the latest is and what we can expect moving forward.

Since the dawn of time, through the age of the dinosaurs, the fall of Ancient Rome and two World Wars to the present day, no formal education pathway into the AV integration industry has ever existed*. The asterisk is sitting there, holding its head high because, well, there technically is a certificate for the AV industry but it has been lying dormant for decades (that’s plural, with an ‘s’ on the end).

In recent years, there has been some movement in this space and the industry might be on the precipice of some real change.

The benefits of a formal education pathway are tremendous. With a pipeline of new workers finding their way into the industry, the AV world wouldn’t have to rely on people accidentally falling into a lifelong career. Integrators can talk to school leavers and sell them on an exciting career working with the greatest technology in the world and creating amazing experiences for a wide range of clients.

More people joining the industry means more people would be getting involved with the relevant associations, growing their capabilities and enhancing their position to campaign for integrators. This could lead to government recognition of the industry, fixing issues like appropriate insurance, the lack of skilled workers and much more.

A pathway appears to be clearing

CEDIA regional development consultant, Australia and New Zealand, Paul Skelton started his role with the association in 2020 and immediately started working on industry recognition. He found that creating a legitimate education pathway into the smart home integration industry is a huge first step in this direction.

After years of going in circles, CITT national executive officer Dominic Schipano reached out to Paul and explained that there was an opportunity to revise an existing, outdated qualification, the Victorian Certificates IV in Integrated Technologies.

“I didn’t know these courses existed, so I asked Dominic to send me the course breakdown and I quickly noticed that despite its name, there were barely any technological skills mentioned, let alone integrated technology,” Paul explains.

“We were able to deconstruct and reconstruct the course, pulling it apart, changing the core subjects to make it a bit more friendly across multiple elective streams, including a new one on smart home technology integration.”

The end result is a proposal for an updated course that aims to give students in Victoria and Western Australia an understanding of smart home technology and the skills of a professional integrator.

“To make sure it was fit for purpose, we included two new modules – residential multi-room AV, and control systems – and we aligned the entire course with ACMA’s open registration so someone who completes the Victorian Certificate IV can walk out of their course and be in a position to work right away,” Paul explains.

Along the way, Paul was introduced by chance to Skills Recognition International training and partner manager Paul Vivian, who is now the technical advisor to CEDIA’s vocational training program efforts in Australia, helping the home automation industry push this training through.

“Paul (Skelton) reached out to me about open registration qualifications and from there, it just blossomed into something bigger and every time we speak, it seems as though we’re taking steps toward getting this thing off the ground,” Paul Vivian explains.

“In addition to our work with the Certificate IV in Integrated Technologies, we’ve been working with the Jobs and Skills Council for the energy industry, Powering Skills Organisation (PSO), and initially, we arranged to put out an industry survey asking the industry what they think should be in the qualification, and we received our biggest response yet. This gave us plenty of information to help construct a course outline.”

A revised national training program, comprising a Certificate III built on the abovementioned Victorian program, the ACMA Open Registration, and CEDIA certifications, has now been submitted as a proposal from the PSO to the Federal Government and the Department of Education and Workplace Relations, which has recently been approved and being incorporated into a larger body of work, where the entire national UEE training package will be reviewed. PSO will be undertaking significant engagement with industry stakeholders to ensure that what is developed supports the industry now and into the future.

Now that it has been approved, the team can move onto the next phase which is fine tuning and tinkering with the course so it includes everything technical a smart home technology integrator needs.

“We have given ourselves until the end of 2027 to get this up and running. It’s a long-winded process with checks and balances but the whole system is evidence-based,” Paul Vivian says.

“We’ll need to take this proposed course to industry, meaning roadshows across the country, meeting with everybody, getting feedback and giving everyone the opportunity to add what they want in there. This includes manufacturers, designers, installers and so on.”

Paul Vivian says the proposed course is going to align with CEDIA’s Cabling & Infrastructure Technician (CIT) and Integrated Systems Technician (IST) programs. This means as students progress through the new qualification, they’ll come out the other end with both of those accreditations.

“It’s looking like it’ll be a four-year apprenticeship at this stage, so after your second year, you’ll have your CIT and then you’ll receive your IST after the fourth year,” Paul Vivian outlines.

A similar apprenticeship program is currently running in the United Kingdom and the Pauls are watching that situation very closely to see how the graduates go.

Paul Vivian says the principle of the movement was to allow all government-approved registered training organisations (RTOs) both privately owned and TAFEs, to be able to take on the project: “So in this project, we’ll provide the resources and the assessment, so the RTO just needs to provide the equipment.

“We’re also looking at aligning vendor training to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) so once a student has completed a particular product training (for example, KNX or Control4), they can then receive a unit of competency that goes towards a Certificate III and takes some of the burden off the RTOs.”

Paul Skelton adds that when this program is ready, which he projects to be 18 to 24 months away, there’s an opportunity for integrators to transition into the role of smart home educator: “If there’s anybody out there who’s interested in semi-retiring and wants to stay in the smart home industry, but not necessarily work in a crawl space anymore, we’re going to need people who can train the next generation.”

Taking matters into their own hands

While the movement on a certificate and apprenticeship program is promising, it doesn’t do much for integration companies looking to hire workers today. With this having been an issue for quite some time, a few in the industry have taken matters into their own hands.

Midwich APAC chairman Michael Broadbent semi-retired two years ago and has since formed a working group with industry peers to address the AV workforce shortages and recognition in the commercial AV industry.

“The pathway into the industry has existed for some time, it’s the AVIXA CTS and UEE41520 Certificate IV in Video and Audio Systems, which was first created in 2006,” he says.

“However, there is a lack of industry promotion and focus at the entry level and career development stages, like with student engagement, the VET sector and careers advisors.”

Michael and his working group are currently revising the UEE41520 Certificate IV, developing a Certificate III-type short course and working with RTOs and government to endorse a skills program.

“The course hasn’t been updated since 2020 so it needs a lot of network-centric additions to it, but fundamentally, it’s there,” he explains.

“With the potential one-year Cert III course, we want to give people a taste. So, come out of school, either as part of VET or your VCE and experience what it’s like to work in the AV industry.”

When speaking with Michael, he pointed me in the direction of Pro AV Solutions director Anthony Jeffcoat. As with many AV integration companies, one of the biggest issues is attracting new workers, so they created the Institute of AV Technology, a first-of-its-kind apprenticeship program designed to develop future AV specialists.

“The apprenticeship program has been very successful for us. A lot of leaders within our business have come through that program and they’ve either stayed on with us for years or gone on to work for other AV companies across the world,” Anthony explains.

The Institute of AV Technology offers a comprehensive four-year course that integrates expertise from the AV, IT and construction sectors, providing students with essential certifications such as electronics, open cabling and the AVIXA Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) qualification.

Graduates will complete a four-year apprenticeship, which includes a mix of theory and practical modules and upon completion, will receive:

• A Certificate III in Electronics and Communications
• An open cabling qualification
• The AVIXA Certified Technology Specialist qualification
• Four years of practical industry experience establishing the foundations for future career pathways and development

Anthony says he started the institute in 2006 and the first adverts to attract new workers were advertised in the Manly Daily: “Most of the people who came through had no idea about the AV industry and now ten, 15 and 20 years later, they’re still working in the industry.”

More recently, the institute has created a range of content to attract younger workers via social media or through school outreach programs, and in particular at careers days.

“The biggest thing the industry can do moving forward is agreeing on an education program and working together to get it recognised,” he adds.

Michael Broadbent agrees, adding that the most important thing the AV industry can do is work together: “People need to attend grassroots events, career days, spread the word online with promotional videos and promote tech crews within schools. We need to get out there and tell people what we do.”

We need this sooner rather than later

Michael Broadbent concludes that there’s plenty of positive stuff happening in the AV industry, whether that be the industry growing at an incredible pace or people taking steps towards creating an education pathway.

“We just need to put all this positive energy into place and find a vehicle to do it through, whether that’s TAFEs, RTOs or whatever it may be, we need to work it out as an industry,” he says.

AETM president Scott Doyle echoes this belief: “The issue of staff and pathways has always been there but as other industries struggle to get workers, so do we. We can no longer rely on finding electricians or IT professionals who want a career change.”

Paul Skelton says that this potential certificate and apprenticeship is the be all and end all for the smart home industry: “If we don’t get this up and running as an occupation now, it’s going to be a hell of a lot harder in the future, and it’s already ridiculously difficult.

“With all these different iterations of technology coming through and the crossover with DIY and IoT technologies from other trades, it becomes so much easier in the future for another trade to come in and say: ‘No, that’s us.’ And we all know what that occupation is going to be.”

Additional reading: AV clubs at schools demonstrate the draw the industry has

Do you want to work in a fast-paced environment alongside the latest and greatest technology while helping create content? Of course you do, it sounds amazing. Also, this is the perfect B2B publication to be asking that question…

But if the AV industry is to create legitimate education pathways, it needs to advertise itself to the younger generation. It needs to compete with a busy crowd of industries trying to get the next generation of workers to invest their time and money into it.

The best way to attract young workers, especially school leavers, is work experience.

During the Integrate+Security Expo in 2024, the AETM hosted the K-12 Conference, targeted at AV and IT managers in the education sector. The final speaker of the day was Kate Ford, Verrocchi Centre manager for Ruyton Girls’ School in Melbourne, but she shared her experience with her previous school, Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC), creating a pathway to the AV industry while also giving students hands-on experience with technology.

Kate introduced the AV situation at PLC, including goals, history and challenges. The first challenge she had in her role was the number of assemblies the school held each week. With several different sections of the school holding multiple assemblies a week, each needed dedicated AV support as well as any troubleshooting that came up, which was time-sapping.

After learning about the workload needed for the assemblies, Kate sent out an expression of interest in the student newsletter to see if any students wanted to help with the IT and AV.

“I created what we call the Tech Team Program, and I received over 70 expressions of interest to help with the AV,” she said.

“For me, and I’m sure many others in the room, that’s how I got into AV: Just playing around with tech and helping the staff out with the projectors and other kinds of technology.”

Following the initial expressions of interest, Kate interviewed the students and eventually ended up with a team that she trained up in the basics. The students were given a roster of events, including several assemblies, events (like sports or theatre) or video editing (“which helped a lot”), and on the last count, there were 64 students helping the AV and IT team almost every day.

Students as young as 12 were dipping their toes into the AV world and getting hands-on experience.

After the early success of the program, Kate was able to give the students access to AVIXA learning modules through the AETM, and some students who were close to graduating were asking what the next steps were in finding employment in the industry, a hard question to answer for anyone in AV.

“I think these programs are where we can find our next generation. Also, it greatly reduced our workload as we were able to delegate the smaller jobs to the students,” Kate concluded.

Following her presentation, there were several questions from intrigued AV managers who wanted to know more about the successful AV club. Kate was happy to report that one of the former students had gone on to find a role in corporate AV.

“Kate Ford ran an excellent AV club, and we’ve seen the success of AV clubs in the past at other schools, but what the industry needs to do is find a way to turn those clubs into AV workers,” AETM president Scott Doyle says.

“We need to be able to give a pathway to those students who have enjoyed their time in this line of work. They need to know that this is a legitimate career with several avenues to explore, but right now, there’s little to no direction to point them in.”