Schneider Electric has formalised an academic alliance with Queensland’s largest trade and technician training TAFE institute – SkillsTech Australia. This is the company's sixth partnership with a tertiary education institution in Australia.
The alliance sees Schneider Electric provide students with an accredited training course suitable to end-users, engineers, system integrators and equipment manufacturers. As part of the alliance,
Schneider Electric has also donated new engineering software to the institution so students can gain practical experience.
[Pictured on the right are SkillsTech Australia's Mary Campbell (L) and Schnieder Electric's Lyle van der Veer.]
The academic partnerships now span four states and include:
New South Wales
• The University of Sydney
Victoria
• Chisholm Institute of TAFE
• Box Hill Institute of TAFE
• Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
Queensland
• Skills Tech Australia (Institute of TAFE)
Western Australia
• Edith Cowan University
Scott Wooldridge, Vice President, Industry Business, Schneider Electric said: “Rapid changes and growth in sectors such as mining, oil and gas and engineering mean there are knowledge gaps in the workforce that need to be addressed.
"Our academic alliance program is focused on addressing those gaps and involves us working closely with Australian academic institutions so we can help up-skill students the future generation of engineers with the skills required by industry.
“The partnerships we have established are centred on the delivery of education programs that strike a balance between theory and practical hands-on-experience. On our part, that’s involved everything from helping academic institutions devise training courses to donating new industry equipment that students can use as part of their training.
“Over time, we hope to continue to grow the number of academic institutions that we work with and further increase the number of students that we help provide with experiential learning and training.”
Mary Campbell, Institute Director, SkillsTech Australia described the importance of Schneider Electric’s partnership to students: “The training program we’ve developed with Schneider Electric plays an important role in ensuring education and training is relevant to the Queensland mining and process automation industry.
"The program we offer provides participants with hands-on experience, and the confidence to design and configure their own systems and applications using Schneider Electric products and solutions. It also means nationally recognised qualifications for Schneider Electric students, who receive industry relevant training to Australian standards.”
Professor Daryoush Habibi, Head of School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University (ECU) commented on the significance of the partnership between Edith Cowan University and Schneider Electric: “The School of Engineering at ECU is one of Australia’s fastest growing engineering schools, with an annual growth of more than 20 per cent over the last four years.
"Each year we graduate a number of qualified and job-ready engineering graduates to help address the current skills gap in this sector. Collaborations such as the development of an Automation Lab with Schneider Electric are crucial in achieving this, and in sustaining our mining and process economy.”
Skender Bregu, Executive Officer of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Foundation at The University of Sydney commented that “the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies’ partnership with Schneider Electric is based on mutually beneficial collaboration.
"Students benefit from state-of-the-art equipment and graduate opportunities while Schneider has access to our expertise on collaborative projects and top students via a unique industrial placement scheme.”
The academic partnerships form part of Schneider Electric’s broader training and education program. Schneider Electric has committed to taking on 100 graduates over the next five years, and took on 14 new graduates this year as part of its 2012 Energy Generation graduate program.
The graduates were selected from across Australia for both their technical skills and passion in wanting to solve the energy challenges facing the planet.