BAE Systems address to the Northern Community Summit
His Excellency, the Governor of South Australia, Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce,
Distinguished Guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
Thank you Daryl for your kind introduction.
It's a pleasure to be here this morning to set the scene for collaboration
within the Northern Community, by speaking briefly about the BAE Systems &
Tenix experiences collaborating with the community in the past few years in
this region.
<Our Reliance on Science and Engineering Slide>
Let me start by explaining why we are so passionate about interacting with
the community, particularly in the area of education.
Australia's productivity and success in the highly competitive global
market, and particularly in the Defence market, is increasingly reliant on
science, engineering and technology skills.
Our abilities in research and development, innovation and discovery are
directly dependent upon the availability of suitably skilled scientists and
engineers, as is our ability to deliver some key Defence programs already
won by South Australian industry.
The results of a recent Government Audit of Science, Engineering and
Technology Skills, which examined national trends in the demand and supply
of these skills, concluded that Australia is facing a looming shortage of
qualified people in the science, mathematics and technology professions and
trades, and further that there is generally a lack of knowledge and poor
public perceptions of career pathways in these areas.
There are several initiatives underway to try and address this potential
skills shortage, including interstate and overseas recruitment, attracting
staff across from non-Defence industries, and re-training of staff already
working within the Defence Industry.
However, when you consider that the people who will build and support the
Air Warfare Destroyers are still in Primary School at the moment, one of the
most critical initiatives is to increase the uptake of maths, science and
technology studies by children and young people to assure a long-term
pipeline of talent.
However the concerning thing is that in the recently published Progress
Report against the South Australian Strategic Plan, there has been a steady
decline in the proportion of secondary school students completing science
and mathematics subjects at school from 39 % in 2003 to 35% in 2007.
This decline is particularly the case in schools located in lower
socio-economic regions such as some of the northern, southern and north
western suburbs of Adelaide.
These science, engineering and technology skills underpin the growth and
success of businesses such as BAE Systems, so you can understand why we are
keen to encourage the advancement of science and technology education at its
earliest point – in schools.
<What is BAE Systems Doing Slide>
So what are we doing about it?
To try and reverse this trend, BAE Systems has developed innovative and
valuable partnerships with our northern Adelaide community, in particular
with the University of South Australia (UniSA), Salisbury High School, TAFE
SA and the Northern Advanced Manufacturing Industry Group (NAMIG) who run
the Concept to Creation program.
In line with the State Government's Science Technology and Innovation 10 or
STI10 Vision – which is all about developing people and communities through
science, technology and innovation skills development and community
engagement – BAE Systems is taking a leading role in partnership with these
organisations to deliver a number of community based programs, some of which
I will briefly discuss this morning.
<NAMIG Slide>
NAMIG is an organisation jointly funded by the Federal and State Governments
and is part of the Sustainable Regions Programme. It was created to further
relationships between advanced manufacturing enterprises in the north of
Adelaide, local communities and schools, and to discuss skill requirements.
Through this organisation, BAE Systems was able to participate in the
Concept 2 Creation program where we conduct tours of our production
facilities throughout the school year on one Thursday every month, where
students observed practical applications of electronic and mechanical
engineering in action.
Students could have one-to-one talks with technicians and engineers about
their work and career choices. Over 900 students have attended to date, and
it will be an ongoing activity. BAE Systems also provides professional
development days for the teaching staff of participating schools.
<Robotic Peer Mentoring Slide>
The Robotic Peer Mentoring Program is an initiative led by UniSA, Adelaide
and Flinders universities, supported by BAE Systems/Tenix as a Gold Sponsor
with $30,000 for 3 years. The goal of this program is to develop an
innovative skill base to underpin the development of the electronics and
associated industries in SA.
The program comprises 20 hours of curriculum for Year 10 students, which
gives them hands-on experience working with circuit boards and software, to
build and program a microcontroller.
The participants gain practical insight and experience into a real life
engineering project, involving design, documentation, building and testing.
The participants have mentors in the form of undergraduate university
students to help them through the process. Without the mentors, these sorts
of experiences are almost impossible to provide on such a scale because very
few teachers have the ability to conduct these classes.
The intent is to scale the program up to over 1500 students in 50 schools by
2009 and plans are also underway to transition the program to every State in
Australia with support being provided by the Government, AEEMA, Engineers
Australia and several Universities.
<Industry Based High School Projects Slide>
Leveraging off the RPM Program, BAE Systems and the University of South
Australia have formed a partnership with Salisbury High School to create an
industry-based Extension Program that is accredited as part of the South
Australian Certificate of Education.
As part of this program Year 12 students from Salisbury High School work on
a 33-week engineering project developed by BAE Systems. A group of our
engineers and UniSA undergraduate engineering students act as mentors to the
Year 12 students.
The 4 students who participated in the first year of this initiative in 2005
all received high subject scores and the students are now studying
engineering at university. Initially two of students who didn't get
sufficiently high TER scores returned to school the following year to
improve their scores in order to achieve entrance to engineering at
university in 2007.
Opportunities like these cannot be provided for students without industry
partners.
<Science at the Lakes Slide>
BAE Systems is also a proud industry participant in Science at the Lakes day
held at Mawson Lakes in northern Adelaide every year. This provides BAE
Systems, along with several other industry participants, with an opportunity
to promote science and technology to over 1000 primary and secondary
students. Around 35 activities were coordinated by local education and
industry organisations at last years event.
TAFE SA's also are actively involved and this is important to show students
the many academic pathways they can take to gain a career in science and
technology – University is not the only option.
<SA Great's Speakers in Schools Slide>
For the past three years BAE Systems has been involved in the SA Great
Speakers in Schools program. SA Great launched the program in October 2005
and have since had many requests from schools seeking speakers from the
Defence industry, to talk about their professional journeys.
We saw this as a great opportunity to again promote science and technology
to our youth, and at the same time it provided development in public
speaking to some of our up and coming employees to speak at various primary
and secondary schools.
<Benefits to Community and BAE Systems Slide>
There are a number of benefits that we have seen by being an active
participant in these programs, as outlined on the slide.
At present, the growth potential of our business is limited by the number of
talented scientists and engineers we can employ.
Based on the significant decline in the uptake of science and engineering at
research institutions over the last few years, this will continue to impact
on our business in the near term. Australia urgently needs to reverse this
trend.
The partnership also has significant benefits for our people. The activities
we undertake provide excellent opportunities to develop our people in areas
such as presentation skills, leadership and teamwork.
Engineers and scientists can be quite insular and providing them with
opportunities for personal growth helps them become more well rounded
individuals. We have seen several of our people make significant
developmental leaps through their involvement in these programs.
<In Conclusion Slide>
I hope the activities I've talked about this morning demonstrate the type of
difference we can all make by building strong partnerships with the local
community in order to address key issues. After all, that's what today is
about.
Examples such as our interaction with Salisbury High School, demonstrate
that when industry, government and educational institutions work together,
some excellent outcomes can be achieved which ultimately benefit Australia.
- If through our Year 12 Industry Project we have helped some young people strive to achieve their potential, when otherwise they may not have; AND
- If their example inspires others to do the same
then we are on our way to achieving something really worthwhile for all members of the community.
The Northern region of Adelaide has traditionally had very low numbers of
students taking up options to study at university. Not though lack of
talent, but perhaps through lack of self-belief or lack of encouragement or
opportunity. If we can help address this through our partnerships then I
believe these are among the most significant differences we can make.
In closing, I strongly urge you to proactively engage your Business in
initiatives such as these. You will find that there are considerable
benefits to be obtained not only for the community we all live in, but
benefits also for your own Business and the people in it.
Identifying problems is easy. Even identifying solutions is not that hard.
But implementing solutions needs the ongoing support and commitment of all
of the community.
I encourage all my staff to ask themselves the question "What are YOU
waiting for" almost on a daily basis. It's a powerful question, and by your
attendance here today, it is clear you are all taking a stand for this
important initiative.
Let me leave you with what I thought was a very relevant quote from the
motivational speaker and philanthropist Zig Ziglar:
"The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches with
them, but to reveal theirs."
Thank you.