Gippsland power station worker John James believes, "the reality is, you're going to have to retrain."

He said his colleagues in his age bracket held a similar mindset, as they looked ahead to the planned closure of the Yallourn coal-fired power plant in 2028.

The 35-year-old electrical and instrumentation technician believed he still had "a lot to give to the industry", so he's turning his sights to offshore wind as a potential career path.

"My partner and I have discussed it a fair bit," Mr James said.

"We live down in South Gippsland, so the opportunity to be able to work locally would be great.

He said most of his colleagues agreed upskilling would be necessary.

"There's no apprehension, everyone's looking forward to it," Mr James said.

"There might be a few older guys who are probably on the other side, but I think most of those guys are looking to retire now."

A guide to get out to sea

Coal workers can now access a new guide funded by the Victorian government on how to retrain for a job in offshore wind to help people like Mr James understand their prospects.

The guide by EnergyAustralia, TAFE Gippsland, Federation University, Atlas Professionals, and offshore wind company Southerly Ten shows the courses different power station workers could take to gain a future job in the industry.

For example, it lists a three-year apprenticeship a boilermaker could take to become a blade repair technician, and what a day would be like on the job.

Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D'Ambrosio said there would soon be fantastic opportunities for the Gippsland workforce to plan for a future in offshore wind.

"We know that Victoria and Gippsland, in particular, is going to be the first part of the country that will deliver offshore wind energy," Ms D'Ambrosio said.

Preparing a big workforce

In 2022, the federal government declared Gippsland as a zone to develop offshore wind energy, and now Southerly Ten has secured feasibility licences for two projects off the region's coastline.

Construction on the company's Star of the South project is expected to begin at the end of this decade according to the company's chief development officer, Erin Coldham.

Ms Coldham said there would be up to 800 jobs in Gippsland during the construction phase and 200 long-term operations and maintenance roles over its 25-to-30-year life span.

"We know that we need a lot of people to get the offshore wind industry up and running," Ms Coldham said.

She believed the current power industry workforce held a "huge advantage" when looking at offshore wind as a potential career because of similar qualifications and safety cultures.

But in terms of whether there were enough specific training opportunities in Australia to develop the industry, she said additional pathways were needed.

"We're still working through what exists here at the moment, and I think there's some great mapping work and that's identified probably some opportunities," Ms Coldham said.

A day in the life

A future worker at Star of the South could potentially work onshore, and others should be comfortable on boats.

"Star of the South at its closest point is about 10 kilometres to shore, so it's typical to use what we call crew transport vessels, where we go out for the day, and back in," Ms Coldham said.

"For longer campaigns in the construction period, we use service operation vessels, so they are out there sometimes for a couple of weeks at a time, so people stay on those ships.

"Typically, with offshore wind, we set up an operations base that would be done at a local port and there are jobs monitoring the wind farm over the lifetime."

And for the "adventurous", there will be jobs that require working at heights up the turbines.

Coal workers preparing for change

EnergyAustralia's head of Yallourn Greg McIntyre said about 60 per cent of staff had the desire to upskill in another field, in preparation for the plant's closure.

Mr McIntyre said it could take coal workers between two to four years to gain the qualifications needed for offshore wind.

"All of the jobs that we have in our power station at Yallourn would have the ability to transition into offshore wind," Mr McIntyre said.

"The key thing is the people know how to transition, what they need to do, where they need to go."

An entirely different path

Yallourn worker Chantel Leahy had already made up her mind about what she wanted to do next.

She looked after the pumps and motors that came off the power plant in need of repair, and she planned to swap the high vis for nursing scrubs.

"It's good being out at Yallourn, so I never thought I'd choose to resign," Ms Leahy said.

"My dad's been out here, and my brother's been out here, and yeah, just generations of family have been out here really.

"But now that I'm actually starting to study, it's getting quite exciting."

Ms Leahy worked full time and was studying nursing and midwifery because she believed it would be meaningful work that would "have an impact on people".

"Gippsland is losing its power industries, and with the uncertainty of how the [Latrobe] Valley will look, a lot of people will be moving, causing a lot of businesses to close," Ms Leahy said.

"I need something where I can relocate if I need to."