Shortages in some skilled trades and difficulties recruiting experienced workers could pose challenges for Australia's $90 billion naval shipbuilding program, a discussion paper has found.
The paper also raised other issues with recruitment, including the need for workers to have appropriate security clearances and increasing international competition for people with shipbuilding experience.
It was released in Adelaide on Thursday by Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, who said the continuous program to build patrol boats, frigates and submarines would create thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
But Mr Pyne said in order to meet the future demands of the shipbuilding schedule "we must ensure we have the right people, at the right time, with the right skills".
The Naval Shipbuilding Strategic Workforce Discussion Paper has forecast the need for about 15,000 workers across construction, sustainment and the supply chain, and cautioned that labour force conditions were impossible to predict more than five years ahead.
"Critical to the successful delivery of new naval capability and the ongoing sustainability of continuous naval shipbuilding, is a highly skilled and productive workforce," the paper said.
"If there are workforce shortages in the national naval shipbuilding enterprise, these could delay the construction or sustainment of naval vessels or lead to significant increases in project costs."
In particular, the paper said addressing skill shortages across a number of areas would be "critical" to securing an appropriate workforce.
Longer term, from 2025 to 2040, it warned the navy also faced a challenge in both attracting and retaining sufficient personnel to operate the new vessels.
"As the shipbuilding enterprise progresses there is likely to be increasing industry demand for navy personnel, due to their knowledge of defence and defence processes," it said.
"There is also strong market competition for workers with technical skills, making navy personnel with these skills attractive to industry.
"The major challenge is expected to be retaining sufficient skilled, mid-seniority officers and sailors to build navy's engineering, technical and logistics knowledge and future leadership once industry begins to mobilise and construction commences."
The discussion paper said to retain personnel, the navy needed to ensure its people had sufficient time ashore between deployments and could be engaged in meaningful work when not at sea.
