A new agreement between Woodside, the North West shelf Project and the Pilbara Institute will see a new centre for excellence for mechanical engineering and apprenticeship training delivered to the Pilbara.

 

The Woodside and Pilbara Institute Mechanical Apprentice Project will see new mechanical teaching equipment, including metal lathes, metal milling machines and surface grinding machines installed at the Institute’s Karratha campus. This will improve training and education outcomes by making it easier for trainers to replicate real world experience.

 

Training and Workforce Development Minister Peter Collier  said Western Australia was going through a period of sustained economic development, led by the resource industry, and it was encouraging to see industry investing in the skills of local apprentices and tradespeople. 

 

“This project is a great example of industry and training providers working together. Public Private Partnerships like this provide an innovative way of sharing expertise, experience and resources to address the training needs of the Pilbara community.”


“It is also in line with the State Government’s Training WA: Planning for the future 2009-2018 strategy which aims to provide a flexible and innovative training system to meet future workforce needs. Public Private Partnerships will be a more common feature in the provision of quality training that produces job-ready employees, not just in the resources sector but in a number of fields,” Mr Collier said.


Funding for the project was provided by Woodside’s Pluto LNG Project and the Woodside operated North West Shelf Project (BHP Billiton Petroleum (North West Shelf) Pty Ltd; BP Developments Australia Pty Ltd; Chevron Australian Pty Ltd; Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) Pty Ltd; Shell Development (Australia) Pty Ltd).