Jobs at the ready

Manufacturers offer free job-ready welding training followed by full-time work. 135238_07

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Manufacturers are offering a free four-week course to help bridge a welding skills-shortage at South East workplaces.

South East Melbourne Manufacturers’ Alliance (SEMMA) received $200,000 of federal funding for the industry-led program that trains and places 60 job seekers in full-time work.

SEMMA chief executive Vonda Fenwick said the “creative solution” was made to address a “severe shortage of suitably trained and skilled welders” in Australian industry for the past 25 years.

“The reality of Australia’s construction-led Covid recovery and the increased Defence focus over the coming years will increase demand for skilled welders exponentially.”

According to SEMMA, companies had resorted to importing skilled migrant workers due to a lack of local job-ready talent.

Ms Fenwick said there was also fear that the infrastructure-led recovery would draw welders away from manufacturing.

“We simply cannot wait for three years for Tafe to turn out a couple of hundred apprentices.

“We need a more creative solution, and we believe that is what SEMMA’s proposal offers; it is the welding equivalent of a ‘shovel ready project’.”

The 150-hour course will equip graduates to perform the work of ‘Class 2 welders’ – sufficient for about 70 per cent of welding tasks at local manufacturers.

Participants – at no cost to them – will learn key welding skills under Chisholm Tafe and an industry leader in a real factory environment.

The training is tailored to local employer needs, including the use of brand-new equipment such as VR welding simulators.

They are then placed in full-time work with a South East manufacturer.

More than a dozen manufacturers have provided expressions of interest to employ successful graduates, SEMMA stated.

The course offers a pathway to potentially full-time, stable and long-term careers in welding.

The program will target youth, female and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as well as people whose jobs were disrupted by Covid-19.

The program is expected to start from late September.

It is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Skills and Employment.