The defence shipbuilding industry is warning of a skills crisis as it awaits details of how much of the nuclear submarine build will happen in Australia.

Industry association Defence Teaming Centre's chief executive, Audra McCarthy, said it was an issue affecting most local companies.

"We're actually competing against other sectors within Australia for the same skill sets, so that's starting to be a real issue and we're actually wanting to see greater investment and energy put into how we close that skills gap," she said.

Ms McCarthy said there are already very good training programs in place trying to boost the number of skilled workers, but the way they were being rolled out needed to improve.

"What we want to do is start looking at the bureaucracy and some of the processes that are involved to access these programs," she said.

Simon Kennedy owns a shipbuilding company at Port Adelaide and said the amount of work he could take on was constrained by the number of workers he could get.

"Like most companies, we can't find enough workers," Mr Kennedy said.

"That is probably the worst I've seen it in 30 years — with a 4 per cent unemployment rate, 200 jobs on Seek in South Australia this week, just to find boilermaker welders, most of them multiple positions."

Mr Kennedy said he was also tackling retention problems, with businesses competing for a small pool of workers.

"Every week there's someone advertising for more money," he said.

"It's a great job to be a boilermaker welder at the moment; the money's getting harder and harder."

Boon for young workers

While the competition for workers is making it difficult for businesses, it is an opportunity for young people entering the industry.

Rebecca Hlinak is a 17-year-old first-year fabrication apprentice at BAE Systems doing training through TAFE.

"I was always a hands-on learner and loved building things, so I found this opportunity and I decided I really want to go for this," she said.

"I've never welded before and it's pretty awesome and building things with metal and steel.

"It's pretty cool and I love all the processes to the job."

Rebecca is likely to be working on the Hunter Class frigates at the Osborne shipyards, in Adelaide's north-west.

They were due to begin construction this year, but that has been delayed by at least 18 months.

But even more questions remain over the future of a local submarine build.

Uncertainty over local submarine build

While there were specific local build commitments made under the deal with French shipbuilder Naval Group, the decision to scrap that deal in favour of nuclear submarines under the AUKUS agreement changed that.

While both major parties have said they will build as much locally as possible, both have suggested at least some of the build will happen offshore.

Ms McCarthy said whoever won the federal election needed to have an industry plan that focussed on what areas Australia should specialise in.

"We can't do everything in Australia, so let's look at what can we specialise in and work in partnership with our trading partners, the UK [and] the US and work together specialising in each of our niche areas so that collectively we can realise the capabilities that we actually all need," she said.

"We'll always want to maximise whatever opportunities are available for industry in the areas that Australia is best at."

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