Expert panel deliver good news on thousands of defence jobs at The Advertiser’s Defence Jobs Forum
The myriad of opportunities for SA’s young people have been detailed in The Advertiser’s Defence Jobs Forum at Adelaide University.
SA News
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For anyone who’s wondered about the longevity of career opportunities in defence, UniSA’s Matt Opie put it into perspective for the hundreds of people who turned out for The Advertiser’s Defence Jobs Forum on Thursday night.
Asked by an engineering student about jobs beyond the next decade, the uni’s defence director said the commanders of the last of the 12 Future Submarines, which would be launched in 2055, were probably about to be born.
And come the time of that final launch, the first Future Sub would be needing a major refit after 20 years of service.
The crowd at last night’s event, hosted by Adelaide University, ranged from high schoolers and their parents to uni students, job seekers, and people interested in reskilling for defence-related jobs.
They heard from an expert panel from all three unis and TAFE SA, the Naval Shipbuilding College, BAE Systems and Naval Group, and young ASC engineer on the Collins Class maintenance program, Melissa Weston.
“If I could describe my job day-to-day in one word, it’s variety,” she said, something that became a key theme of the night.
As well as engineers and tradies, and repeated suggestions the best engineers start as tradies, panellists listed everything from psychologists to food technologists and academic researchers to forklift drivers as among the thousands of jobs in the pipeline.
BAE’s engineering director Martin Bartlett said as major defence projects were so big, long-lasting and varied, even someone who worked on one project their whole working life could have 10-15 different careers within that.
Mr Opie advised young people leaning towards STEM to study engineering or technical trades, and for others to look at business or project management as preparation for a defence career.
Naval Group’s resourcing manager Lorraine Cody said the misconception that defence was just about frontline jobs had to be addressed, especially among girls.