The Naval Shipbuilding College's debut at Pacific 2019, the largest maritime expo in the southern hemisphere, has been hailed a resounding success.
During the event the College joined Australia's leading defence Primes to become a signatory to the ground breaking Naval Shipbuilding Industry Strategic Workforce Plan. We welcomed around 100 secondary school and tertiary students for a STEMulation Trail, including a tour of Australia's largest warship.
We hosted the Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price at our state-of-the-art augmented reality exhibit and had Assistant Minister for Vocational Training and Apprenticeships Steve Irons as the keynote speaker at our National Skilling Breakfast. Senior leaders from the College also met with Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds, Secretary of the Department of Defence Greg Moriarty and a host of state government delegations to provide updates on the College's significant progress and to discuss further collaboration opportunities.
"The Naval Shipbuilding College is key to ensuring our future workforce can meet the needs of the naval shipbuilding industry for decades to come,'' Minister Reynolds said.
"It was a pleasure to hear from the College at Pacific 2019 on the opportunities it offers education and training providers across Australia to collaborate with high quality candidates for future employment.
"The Naval Shipbuilding College is vital to ensuring this is achieved.''
Chief Executive of the Naval Shipbuilding College Ian Irving said Pacific 2019 was a great of example of what could be achieved with all stakeholders pulling in the same direction.
"Our achievements at Pacific were a result of successful collaboration with our partners across Defence, industry, training and education,'' he said.
"Through a collective effort industry has taken a significant step towards raising the profile of naval shipbuilding and the associated supply chain and sustainment industries as an aspirational career destination for Australians.
"Our presentations on future workforce plans to industry and government at a range of seminars were very well received and reinforced the importance of the College as a vital element in the development of the National Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise.''
The signing of the landmark Naval Shipbuilding Industry Strategic Workforce Plan at Pacific involving Australia's defence Primes, will boost Australia's capability to continuously design, build, integrate and sustain our new fleet of warships and submarines.
Read more about the historic agreement here.
Industry Skilling and Assurance Manager Paul Whetstone hosted a collaborative workshop with key stakeholders discussing a range of issues relating to the future of welding skilling and training within naval shipbuilding and Training Solutions Manager Nicholas Howie joined an expert panel presenting a Future Workforce Seminar hosted by the Defence NSW.
For the first time at Pacific, the College hosted secondary school and tertiary students on a STEMulation Trail through the exhibition floor where they met with defence industry to learn about career opportunities and immerse themselves in STEM and augmented reality activities, before attending a private luncheon with their potential future employers.
"I think everyone enjoyed the opportunity to meet and get an understanding of the future employment and career opportunities,'' Mr Irving said.
"Industry understand to sustain a successful continuous, National Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise engaging with the future workforce is a critical component.''
As part of the STEMulation Trail the Australian Maritime College provided students with an immersive, virtual reality STEM activity, placing them on the bridge of a ship in Sydney Harbour.
Head of Communications at Naval Group Australia Jessica Thomas said the company was proud to partner with the Naval Shipbuilding College for the STEMulation Trail Tour during Pacific 2019.
"We hosted over 70 keen and enthusiastic secondary and tertiary students on our stand,'' she said.
"The visits enabled us to showcase students the exciting opportunities available within the Future Submarine Program. It was uplifting to witness so much enthusiasm from each group.
"The College networking lunch provided Naval Group Australia with an opportunity to interact one on one with students interested in pursuing a career within naval shipbuilding, along with other industry partners."
A further milestone was reached during Pacific 2019 following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the College with peak industry group Weld Australia.
The agreement will help create a commonality in training, skilling and certification across Australia in relation to naval shipbuilding.
View the media release here.
Each day during Pacific the College and Weld Australia hosted the Weld Cup, a virtual reality welding competition to help identify the best welder at the conference.
Every winner was presented with a model of a Hobart class Destroyer – thanks to our talented friends at TAFE SA.
Day 1 winner:
Yuen Chan
Manuel Grundy-Quay
Melissa Gay
Mr Irving said local and international media coverage of the work being undertaken by the College and its industry partners at Pacific contributed to increasing the profile of Australia's naval shipbuilding industry around the world and elevating naval shipbuilding as a career of choice for Australians.
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