Flinders University engineering student Matthew Cave recently completed his 20-week placement at APC Technology. Based on his outstanding work, Cave has been offered a permanent position as an undergraduate engineer whilst completing his final year of study. Cave was the winner of the South Australian Premier’s Defence Industry Scholarship, which is designed to support South Australian university students to undertake industry placements as part of their degree with companies in South Australia’s rapidly growing defence industry.
As one of the inaugural companies to participate in the program, APC Technology committed to a second year following on from the successful placement of Brandon Sears who also accepted a full-time permanent position as a graduate engineer in 2020.
“We initially became involved with the program as it offered an opportunity to tap into the skills and knowledge of leading third-year and honours students,” said APC Managing Director Scott Begbie. “However, the impact of our participation has exceeded expectations with both recipients now a part of the APC engineering team. Matt and Brandon bring fresh ideas, current engineering concepts and skills whilst gaining the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real world engineering projects.”
Premier Steven Marshall said the appointments demonstrated the success of the scholarship program in setting students up for rewarding careers in South Australia’s growing defence sector. “The scholarship program is proving to be a winner for the individuals, companies and universities involved while delivering on South Australia’s history of producing a highly skilled and job ready workforce to meet defence industry needs,” said Marshall. “The strong partnerships formed between local defence SMEs and higher education institutions is supporting local businesses to grow their skills base and expertise and creating exciting career pathways for students to capitalise on the growing opportunities that will be coming online as a direct result of the pipeline of defence industry jobs secured for South Australia.”