Page 40 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2020

40 SEA POWER WORKFORCE
APRIL 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
MEETING THE SHIPBUILDING WORKFORCE DEMAND
In what may be a world first, competing Defence primes are collaborating to develop strategies to ensure Australia has the skilled workforce required to deliver the Attack-class Future Submarine and the Hunter-class Future Frigate programs.
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
THIS is an issue which continues to loom large in naval mari- time sector thinking, bearing in mind that current resources clearly need strengthening, both numerically and in terms of skills, amid significant growth in adjacent employment markets such as oil, gas, minerals and infrastructure.
According to the 2017 Naval Shipbuilding Plan, by 2026 the industry will require more than 5,200 personnel di- rectly employed in construction, and more than double that number working in sustainment and supply chain activities for the Commonwealth and industry.
Ultimately, more than 15,000 personnel will be directly or indirectly employed in the national naval shipbuilding enterprise, the Plan forecasts.
With this very much in mind, the signature last Octo- ber of the Naval Shipbuilding Industry Strategic Workforce Plan established unprecedented collaboration between the Naval Shipbuilding College (NSC) and leading naval primes – ASC, BAE Systems Australia/ASC Shipbuilding, Luerssen Australia, and Naval Group Australia (NGA), to- gether with Lockheed Martin Australia and Saab Australia.
The four-step strategic workforce plan essentially ad- dresses demand, supply, solutions and sustainment on a national basis.
NSC’s role is that of an aggregator and a coordinator of strategy and educational skilling, says Ian Irving, the Col- lege’s Chief Executive.
ASC