More young people are now employed in apprenticeships and technical traineeships across the Hunter region following the completion of the 2018 STEMship program.
An initiative of Regional Development Australia (RDA) Hunter and supported by the State Government through Defence NSW, Training Services and TAFE NSW, STEMship is a vocational education and training (VET) pre-employment program that offers senior school students the opportunity to study with TAFE NSW and learn skills on-the-job as a pathway to employment and/or further study.
The 14 strong 2018 cohort who, as part of the program, completed 14 weeks of training in a Certificate III Engineering course at TAFE NSW Newcastle that included the design, creation and manufacture of a product utilising advanced technologies and four weeks work placement with Hunter industry, graduated earlier this month. The graduation event was held at TAFE NSW Newcastle and was attended by government, education and industry representatives as well as participants’ families.
STEMship participants were matched to Hunter industry businesses based on their skills and interests and undertook work-experience in STEM and defence sectors in roles as diverse as shipwright, electrician, diesel mechanic and systems engineer.
Two of the 14 participants gained employment with their host companies prior to the completion of the program: Caleb Newitt in a Mechanical Automotive Apprenticeship with Kloster Ford (Newcastle) and Mason Mangovski at Obelisk Systems (Maitland). Samuel Pickles is being considered for a traineeship with EDC Consulting (Newcastle), Zane Folpp is in the final stages of the employment process with Bloomfield Collieries and Liam Symes has enrolled in CIV Engineering at Newcastle TAFE.
RDA Hunter’s STEM Workforce Manager, Rick Evans said the employment of participants is a great mark of the success of the program.
“2018 is another great result for our STEMship program which has, since its commencement in 2016, seen 65% of participants gain employment with participating industry partners,” Rick said.
“The program’s success is based on its industry-led format whereby industry communicates its skills needs to us and we respond by facilitating a tailored TAFE NSW course and on-the-job work placement. This leads to skilled and job-ready employees.”
2018 industry partners included Varley Group, AmpControl, EDC, Hummingbird Electronics, UAV Air, Obelisk Systems, Cummins South Pacific, Hedweld Group, AV Living Port Stephens, Bluewater Cruising Yachts, Tomago Aluminium, PBE Rutherford, Advantage Electrical, Coastal Shipwright Services, Inovin Industries and Mat Brown Building.
IMAGE | Graduates of the 2018 STEMship program.
