Page 132 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec21-Jan22

132 FROM THE SOURCE MELISSA PRICE
DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
coming on stream over the next 12 months. Now, that’s just one shipbuilder.
“IN TERMS OF THE NEXT 6-24 MONTHS MORE BROADLY, CLEARLY THE KEY FOCUS WILL BE THE PROCESS THAT WILL TAKE PLACE TO DETERMINE HOW WE WILL ACQUIRE EIGHT NUCLEAR POWERED SUBMARINES”
fence industry small to medium sized busi- ness. There are 120 internship placements being offered this financial year which means that it’s providing a direct pipeline for defence industry SMEs to access that fresh innovative young Aussie talent.
The Naval Shipbuilding College has de- veloped a tailored education pipeline for engineering students that supports un- dergraduates to develop work ready skills to meet the future skilling needs of both Defence and defence industry within the shipbuilding enterprise. Students study- ing in specified degree streams and elec-
We must make sure we have the work-
force to take advantage of the remarkable
opportunities presented by our investment
in naval shipbuilding. One program that
I’m particularly proud of is the Defence
Industry Pathway Program, which had
its first intake of 20 in July this year. This
program was developed by our government
in partnership with WA Maritime Defence
Industry and WA South Metropolitan
TAFE. It’s essentially a TAFE course de-
signed to set participants on a path for an
exciting lifetime defence industry career. The pilot program will support 120 students by mid-2022. Our government is contributing almost $45,000 per trainee to fund their wag- es on-cost and uniform, including safety footwear.
tives at the Queensland University of Technology and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology are eligible to ap- ply for a naval shipbuilding pipeline scholarship.
The government also supports defence industry business- es to invest in the development of their employees through reskilling and upskilling which is done through a program called Skilling Australia’s Defence Industry Grants Pro- gram, also known as SADI. SADI currently funds up to 100 per cent of eligible training costs, apprentice super- vision support and funding to improve human resources. This program has $39 million in funding over this year and
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A guiding strategy for developing a suitable workforce is the Defence Industry Skilling and STEM Strategy, and in that strategy there are a couple of key initiatives I just want to mention. One is the School Pathway Program. This aims to inform young people about the various pathways and ca- reer opportunities in the defence industry sector while en- couraging students to engage in STEM studies more broadly.
The other one is the Defence Industry Internship Program. This supports high performing third and fourth-year engi- neering students to do a paid 12-week internship with a de-
To support the skilling of the defence industry TAFE Queensland is training welders to the international ISO9606 standard
TAFE QUEENSLAND