Professions go back to schools

At Dampier Primary School early this month, a heavyweight collection of engineers led by Engineers Australia’s national president Doug Jones and State president Steve Algie presented certificates to local winners of the EngQuest competition.

The trip to Dampier and other Pilbara primary schools illustrated the lengths engineers will take to spark interest in their profession.

The aim of EngQuest is to lift awareness of engineering, science and technology and ultimately contribute to an increase in the number of people studying engineering.

Engineers Australia rate school programs such as EngQuest as an important part of the long-term solution to the current skills shortage.

The building and automotive industries are also targeting school students.

Alcock Brown-Neaves director Dale Alcock has been one of the driving forces behind the new building and construction industry promotion program.

“One of the challenges is to present our industry as upbeat, contemporary and moving forward but we also have to get employers in our industry to participate,” he said.

Mr Alcock’s company is backing words with action. It currently has about 110 apprentices and is aiming to double or even triple that number.

He said the current shortages could get worse over the next few years as skilled tradespeople, whose average age is in the mid 40s, retired from the workforce.

John Hughes general manager fixed operations Steve Fraser said a challenge for the auto trade was to break the ‘grease monkey’ stereotype.

“An apprenticeship was always seen as a second best option but it’s very different in our trade to what it was even 10 years ago,” Mr Fraser said.