BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 1081 FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2018
White Night on the way IT was all sparkle and glitz this week as Fashion and Art were in town ahead of White Night in Bendigo on September 1.
SLOW BURN Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
By SHARON KEMP
BENDIGO’S manufacturing industry must convince parents and teachers welding is a trade worth pursuing to address a critical shortage in the skill threatening to grind local production to a halt. “A lot of our community’s teachers and parents do not think too highly of the welding profession,” Jeff Bothe said. Mr Bothe is working with the Bendigo Manufacturing Group to try and find hundreds of welders the industry forecasts it will need
■ Looking
Business leads push for more welders
in the next couple of years. “Simply doing nothing at this stage to address this issue is not a option,” Thales Australia operations manager Murray Brown told a packed meeting of Bendigo businesspeople on Tuesday night. The chief executive of representative body Weld Australia added that 90 per cent of applicants for welding jobs were failing basic pre-employment competency
tests forcing it to write and supply standardised training programs and facilities. Geoff Crittenden said Bendigo had applied to be the location of specialised training centre which were fully funded by the Victorian government. “This is an issue nationally,” he said, adding that Bendigo’s method of finding a solution made the city stand out.
ahead to the writers festival – Page 12
BMG is leading the rescue mission, starting by conducting research leading to forecast demand for welders in Bendigo. Fifteen local respondents predicted they would be advertising to find 130 additional welders in the coming year, and another 113 the year after. The respondents accounted for less than 20 per cent of businesses which employ welders.
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Outlining what must be done, Bendigo TAFE Skills and Jobs Centre manager Paul Stagg told employers they needed to “change the mindset of influencers” including school career advisors by reassuring them the job opportunities were real. The industry outlines various reasons for the shortage but among them is the perceived trend among secondary schools to give career advice that values university degrees higher than vocational training. Continued Page 2
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