SuniTAFE engineering students were treated to a day of industry visits to local businesses last month, including Interlink Sprayers.  

The students are a part of the Vocational Education and Training Delivered to Secondary Students (VETDSS) program, which is designed to give secondary students a glimpse into a study area of their choice.  

Industry excursions are a key part of the VETDSS program, as they allow students to go out into the local community and meet experienced business owners. These businesses are usually diverse, showcasing the variety of roles and day-to-day tasks that a single SuniTAFE course can lead to.  

Students see firsthand how the skills that they are developing in the classroom translate to meeting the demands of business locally. 

One of the stops on the engineering excursion was local business Interlink Sprayers who talked to the students about the many jobs that can be done within their organisation.  

Managing Director of Engineering and Design Matthew McWilliams gave the students a tour of the business and chatted to them about what it is like to work in the trade.  

“I think it’s massively important to take the time to steer kids in the right direction,” he said.  

“Particularly for this trade, visuals are important. If they can see something finished, they get a little bit excited about it and think ‘wow this is what you can do with this trade.’ It can really inspire them.” 

During the tour, the students got to see the ways that technology and innovation are intersecting with traditional trades more often.  

“New technology and programs give us the ability to design things that we could never have even dreamed before,” Mr McWilliams said.  

“When you talk about metal fabrication, to laser cut something is just sublime. Or, to be able to make a jigsaw puzzle out of steel, who would have thought?”  

“Then, the programming and design that goes into our work is huge too. We have three full-time programmers who draw people’s sprayers from all over the world.” 

SuniTAFE’s engineering workshops are equipped with technologies designed to give students the skills they will need to meet the future needs of the industry.  

The training that is on offer prepares students to work in both highly-technical workplaces as well as those that rely on manual skills.   

Building connections with local industry like this is vitally important to the work that SuniTAFE does because it is businesses like Interlink where apprentices gain employment later on.  

“An industry visit like this is helpful because we generally fish from that pool of students,” Mr McWilliams said.  

“We’ll get a couple of these secondary students come through for work experience who then move on to do apprenticeships. 

“You can tell which students that we’ll probably see again. They’re the ones that hang back and ask questions and show a genuine interest. We end up hiring those kinds of people and it is good for us to be introduced to them like this.”  

Mr McWilliams’ departing message to the students was to aim high and work hard.  

“Be the best you can. Whatever you choose to do, just be the best version of yourself. Encourage yourself to go to that next level and then big things can happen,” he said.  

SuniTAFE has both fabrication and mechanical engineering apprenticeships on offer. Click here to learn more.  

Or, to see if the VETDSS program is right for you or your child, click here.