THE Australian Maritime College’s “strong engagement” and ongoing partnership with Defence has been recognised with two accolades at the Defence Connect Australian Defence Industry Awards.
AMC was named ‘Academic Institution of the Year’, and its commercial arm AMC Search won the ‘Regional SME of the Year’, at a gala event live streamed from Sydney on 27 November 2020.
In addition, AMC Search was named a finalist in the category of ‘Prime Contractor of the Year’.
AMC principal Michael van Balen AO was delighted to accept the two awards on behalf of the University of Tasmania’s specialist maritime institute.
“Maintaining strong connections between academia, Defence and industry is essential as Australia progresses its goal to build a sovereign naval shipbuilding capability,” Mr van Balen said.
“AMC plays a key role in this plan by providing the education and training needed to build a pipeline of talented naval architects, engineers, management and logistics professionals.”
AMC Search’s win recognises its expertise at delivering bespoke training solutions for a rapidly expanding autonomous maritime systems capability in Defence.
This includes being awarded a three-year contract to deliver autonomous systems training to the Royal Australian Navy and for investing in innovative training software called ROMULUS that significantly improves training outcomes for defence trainees.
“Having AMC Search as a training consultancy within our College means it operates in ways which are highly agile and focused on the needs of our clients,” Mr van Balen said.
“And, because it is part of our College, it can access our world-class expertise and facilities as part of what it offers.
“What also sets us apart is a history of co-design of our offerings through deep engagement with industry, which results in extensive work-integrated learning and produces highly job ready graduates.”
The 2020 Defence Connect Australian Defence Industry awards received more than 500 submissions from 150 companies.
