The federal government has announced the establishment of a Maritime Technical College to identify and train or retrain Australian workers that will deliver future shipbuilding projects.
With an initial investment of $25 million, the Maritime Technical College will be based in Adelaide, but will provide training across the country in key areas such as steel fabrication, welding and naval engineering, Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne stated.
The government is expected to release an open tender for the college in the coming weeks, and it is due to start operations in January 2018. Defence is arranging industry information sessions, with details to be released in the next few weeks.
“By the late 2020s, the naval shipbuilding industry will expand to more than 5,200 employees in construction in South Australia, and more than double this in sustainment and through the supply chain across the country,” Minister Pyne said.
“The Maritime Technical College is a government investment aimed at attracting, recruiting, training and retaining the workforce we need to successfully deliver a continuous naval shipbuilding program. We fully expect workers previously employed in mining and automotive industries to be retrained through this college, ready to start work on our next generation of naval vessels.”
Initially, the college will be required to ensure that the SEA 1180 Offshore Patrol Vessel project has sufficient workers available when construction starts in Adelaide next year.