The welding industry lobby is unhappy with the new Manufacturing and Engineering training package, which it warns “differs very little” from the 1998 and 2005 editions

“It ignores the huge technological advancements and changes that will continue to occur in Australia’s engineering and manufacturing industries,” Weld Australia’s Geoff Crittenden says.

WA warns apprentices start work, “without the requisite skills or knowledge” and wants the federal government “to undertake an in-depth review of the TAFE welding curriculum.”

It would be a first. Strange to relate, among the vast number of VOCED inquires and assessment and reviews, policies and pilots recorded on the estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research database welding is not mentioned.