Mining apprenticeships

Mining apprenticeships

Apprenticeships Australia – Mining, Oil and Gas

NOTE: this is an older article. For more up to date info about Australian Apprenticeships, read this latest updated story.

Bechtel, one of the the world’s premier engineering, construction, and project management companies, recently announced it will hire 400 adult apprentices in preparation for three LNG plant construction projects around the country. (Note: the project has now been completed). Find out more about the Curtis Island Project here.

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Curtis Island by the numbers

  • 3 projects, 3 customers, 1 contractor
  • 14,500 people employed at peak
  • Concrete equivalent to seven Empire State Buildings
  • Structural steel equivalent to 13 Eiffel Towers
  • Electrical cable equivalent to 11 times the length of the Grand Canyon
  • Three module yards in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines fabricating 260 modules, many of which weighed up to 5,000 tons

Local impact

  • More than $1.5 billion in local wages to long-term Gladstone residents
  • 436 apprentices trained and hired, including 200 local residents out
  • 500+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people employed
  • Comprehensive community engagement program, including support to local science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and marine safety
  • 40+ subcontracts totaling $350 million awarded to local businesses

There are 3 LNG plants built on Curtis Island off Gladstone, which created 1000’s of jobs in Queensland.

In what’s being called the largest single intake of adult apprentices in Australia’s history, Bechtel says it will work closely with the Federal Government’s National Apprenticeships Program. (NAP)

The announcement is good news for those who have only partly completed an apprenticeship program or trades assistants from construction and engineering backgrounds.

Others who are considering a job in the mining and resource sectors can get in on the action too; Australian residents, with qualifications not yet recognised in Australia will also benefit.

Andy Greig, Bechtel’s managing director in Australia, says the program is win-win and his company is pleased to be part of the opportunity. He added, “It will help meet the demand for skilled labour in the mining and resource sector and give adult workers with uncompleted apprenticeships, or those working in allied industries without a trade qualification, the chance to complete an apprenticeship in a reduced amount of time.”

Adult apprenticeships for mining

NAP Program Director Alan Sparks said recruitment of the adult apprentices for Bechtel would begin immediately through a series of advertisements focusing on seven trades: Electrical Fitter Mechanics, Dual Trade Electrical instrumentation, Metal Fabrication Boilermakers, Welders, Metal Fabrication Pipe Fitters, Mechanical Fitters and Carpentry Form workers

Mining contractor McMahon is also running a program, with NAP, for Diesel Fitter apprentices for Perth residents .

More information can be found on the National Apprenticeship Program website

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