Tuesday 10th December saw 12 participants graduate from the fourth iteration of RDA Hunter’s STEMship program. STEMship is a multi-disciplinary pre-vocational program coordinated by RDA Hunter in partnership with TAFE NSW, and funded by Defence NSW through Training Services NSW. The aim of the STEMship program is to transition students out of school and into employment or further study via Defence Industry related technical Apprenticeships or Traineeships.

This year’s STEMship saw students undertake a CIII in Engineering Technical at Newcastle TAFE Campus, with a combination of engineering, electronics and pneumatics units, along with industry visits and work-placements in some of the Hunter Region’s most innovative Defence and Advanced Manufacturing industry organisations.

“STEMship is a very successful model that is popular with both participants and our industry partners. It works because of 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,” said RDA Hunter’s STEM Workforce Manager, Rick Evans.

Students moved out of school to participate in the program, and are now in various stages of transferring to apprenticeship recruitment activities or will undertake further study in 2020.