ME Program Partner School Hunter River High announced as a P-TECH Pilot School

RDA Hunter warmly welcomes the announcement that its ME Program aerospace partner school, Hunter River High, has been invited to pilot the P-TECH programme.

Designed to improve employment outcomes for students and deliver better results in STEM, the P-TECH programme builds on the strong foundations of RDA Hunter’s skills and workforce development initiative, the ME Program, which has been linking schools and industry to help prepare a skilled and ready workforce for Hunter industry since 2010.

“We are very pleased that our Aerospace High School, Hunter River High has been chosen to pilot the P-TECH school programme,” said RDA Hunter CEO Todd Williams.

“Attracting and retaining skilled people is key to economic development and as the region’s principle economic development agency, RDA Hunter has been working hard to secure this prestigious STEM programme for the region. P-TECH works with our ME Program and will help us continue to produce skilled and ready employees for our growing aerospace and defence industry.” continued Mr Williams.

Partnered with Hunter companies AmpControl, BAE Systems Australia and Varley Group, Hunter River High School is the region’s only aerospace high school. Through its ME Program, RDA Hunter facilitates a relationship between industry partners and the school that engages students in industry relevant STEM activities that lead to STEM careers and provides industry with skilled and motivated employees.

“STEM based engineers and tradespeople are critical to our future aerospace workforce. We need 200 plus new Aerospace engineers and technicians in next five years,” said Andrew Chapman – BAE Systems Head of Engineering, Aerospace

“We are a long-term ME Program supporter having 40 plus ME Program work experience placements since 2010.” continued Mr Chapman.

P-TECH Programme pilots already underway in Geelong and Ballarat are seeing students benefit from the STEM learning programme that aligns with local employer needs. P-TECH opens up new avenues for students by linking schools with businesses in local communities that offer job opportunities that require STEM skills.

P-TECH combines technical and vocational skills with school and industry partnerships to tackle the challenges of high youth unemployment and help more young people into work.