Hunter Class Frigate Program welcomes 1,000th employee

BAE Systems Australia subsidiary, ASC Shipbuilding, has welcomed its 1000th employee onto the Hunter Class Frigate Program. Tayesha Papa has joined the business as a Project Controller. She attended Adelaide University, completing a Bachelor of Mechatronic Engineering and Computer Science and in 2016 completed a three-month internship with BAE Systems at Edinburgh Parks. Papa moved to Melbourne in 2017 and has returned to pursue her career on Australia’s biggest surface shipbuilding project. Since the Hunter Class Frigate Program began an average of 34 of people have been recruited per month, including almost 200 between March and July this year, at the height of the COVID-19 national lockdown. ASC Shipbuilding Managing Director, Craig Lockhart, said: “I am delighted to welcome Tayesha to our business. “Our commitment is to build a skilled and diverse workforce in Australia that will attract the brightest talent from schools and universities. On Hunter, we plan to employ 1000 apprentices and graduates, so that by around 2038, some 75 percent of the workforce including senior executives will have started as graduates or apprentices.” Papa said: “I’m really looking forward to this next stage of my career. “My previous roles have always been quite broad, so narrowing my focus and contributing to this monumental project is a challenge I’m ready to take on.” For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Director of Sales Graham Joss at [email protected]