STEM and Defence Industry Skills

The defence industry comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military materials, equipment and facilities.

South Australia’s defence industry comprises hundreds of businesses who contribute to developing and maintaining military capabilities in Australia and overseas. Military capabilities are not a ship or a plane or a tank but the trained crews on board or a logistics base to support them, or a maintenance facility to repair them and there are many other things that come together to constitute a military capability.

The type of capabilities used to support the Australian Defence Force can provide broader benefits to the community through technology being used by other sectors, particularly the manufacturing sector. Work in the defence industry is constantly evolving providing the opportunity to experiment and innovate on interesting and challenging work.

It is crucial to attracting skilled workers to the industries and in encouraging these people to remain in the industry. Many of the skills gained in defence industry transfer across easily to other industries. Due to the high standards demanded people trained in defence industry are highly sought after by businesses outside that industry. Because it is a global industry, there are defence opportunities around the world.

The most important thing is that our defence industry is focussed on preserving lives and ensuring our defence forces are the best they can be. People in our defence industry contribute to keeping our nation’s armed forces at the cutting edge of capability to ensure they can deter others from compromising our nation’s security. Our industry must share the same dedication and discipline that our soldiers do. They must be conscious of the security and secrecy requirements that our Defence Force demands and they must maintain the highest standards of quality in the world.

This program is part of the state STEM Skills Strategy which is aimed at increasing the supply of people taking up STEM occupations to meet the growing needs of our local industries, including mining and defence.