Tag: skilled trades shortage

  • Apprenticeships and Traineeships: How BevTech Builds Trade Talent

    The Skills Pipeline FMCG Manufacturing Depends On

    Every experienced fitter, electrician, or boilermaker working in Australian FMCG engineering today started as an apprentice or trainee. With an ageing trades workforce and a well documented skilled trades shortage across food and beverage manufacturing, how a business approaches apprenticeship and traineeship training has become a genuine strategic issue, not just a hiring formality. At BevTech, a family owned engineering business based in Richlands, Queensland, apprenticeship training has been part of the company’s approach for its entire 25 plus years of operation, and it remains central to how the business builds the mechanical, electrical, and automation capability its FMCG clients rely on.

    Why BevTech Trains Its Own Talent

    Industrial electrical and mechanical trades in a beverage and food manufacturing context require a specific combination of skills that is difficult to find fully formed in the open market: comfort working around live production equipment, understanding of food grade materials and hygiene requirements, and familiarity with the PLC platforms and control systems specific to the sector. Rather than relying solely on hiring already qualified tradespeople, many of whom are already engaged elsewhere given current shortages, BevTech has consistently invested in training apprentices and trainees from the ground up, shaping their skills specifically around the demands of FMCG engineering from day one.

    This approach also reflects a longer term view of workforce planning. Apprentices trained within BevTech’s own systems and culture tend to progress more smoothly into specialist roles, whether in PLC programming, functional safety engineering, or precision machining, because they have built their foundational skills in the same environment they will eventually specialise within.

    What an Apprenticeship at BevTech Looks Like

    Apprentices at BevTech are not confined to basic maintenance tasks or workshop cleanup duties. From early in their training, apprentices work alongside qualified tradespeople on real production line projects, whether that is assisting an electrician with cable pulling and termination on an automation upgrade, or supporting a fitter and turner on a precision machining job in BevTech’s in house machine shop, equipped with CNCs, mills, lathes, guillotines, and brake presses.

    This hands on exposure runs alongside the formal Certificate III training undertaken through TAFE or a registered training organisation, whether in electrotechnology, engineering fabrication, or mechanical trades. The combination of structured classroom learning and genuine, varied on site experience is what distinguishes a strong apprenticeship from one that leaves a tradesperson under prepared for industrial FMCG work once qualified.

    Mentoring From Experienced Tradespeople

    A defining feature of BevTech’s approach is direct mentoring from senior tradespeople and engineers, many of whom have been with the business for years and have deep, practical knowledge of the specific equipment and control systems used across the company’s FMCG client base. Because BevTech is family owned and relatively close knit compared to larger corporate engineering firms, apprentices are not simply assigned to a rotating cast of supervisors, they build sustained working relationships with the same senior staff over their training period, which supports more consistent and personalised skill development.

    Traineeships Beyond the Traditional Trades

    Alongside formal trade apprenticeships, BevTech also supports traineeships in areas such as process, packaging, and machine operation, reflecting the broader workforce needs of FMCG manufacturing beyond the core electrical and mechanical trades. These traineeships provide a structured entry point for workers who may not be pursuing a formal trade qualification but who are building genuinely valuable, transferable skills in operating and maintaining production equipment within a food and beverage manufacturing environment.

    Addressing the Skilled Trades Shortage From the Ground Up

    The skilled trades shortage affecting food and beverage manufacturing is, at its root, a pipeline problem: not enough new tradespeople entering the industry to replace those retiring or moving into other sectors. Businesses that rely entirely on the existing labour market to fill vacancies are competing for an increasingly limited pool of experienced tradespeople, driving up costs and creating genuine capacity constraints. By contrast, businesses that actively invest in apprenticeship and traineeship training are, in effect, growing the overall pool of skilled tradespeople available to the sector, rather than simply competing for existing talent.

    This is a long term strategy rather than a quick fix, since apprenticeships take several years to complete, but it is the only genuinely sustainable answer to a structural shortage. BevTech’s consistent investment in this area over 25 years reflects a recognition that the business’s own long term capability depends on the broader health of the trades pipeline feeding into FMCG engineering.

    The Benefit to BevTech’s Clients

    For the FMCG manufacturers BevTech works with, this investment in apprenticeship and traineeship training translates into a more reliable, better resourced engineering partner over time. Apprentices who progress through BevTech’s training system become the qualified electricians, fitters, and control systems engineers delivering client projects in future years, carrying with them years of accumulated, business specific knowledge of client sites, equipment, and control systems. This continuity is difficult to replicate through a workforce built primarily on external hiring, and it is a meaningful part of why long standing FMCG clients continue to rely on BevTech for both planned projects and emergency breakdown support.

    Supporting Apprentices Through the Difficult Stages

    Every apprenticeship has stages that are genuinely challenging, whether that is the transition from classroom theory to live production work, a difficult unit of study at TAFE, or the natural dip in confidence that comes with a first genuine fault finding failure on a live system. How a business responds to these moments matters enormously to whether an apprentice completes their training and goes on to build a long career, or becomes another statistic in an industry with a well documented apprentice attrition problem. BevTech’s approach relies on senior tradespeople recognising these difficult periods early, rather than waiting for a formal review process to flag a struggling apprentice, and responding with additional support and adjusted expectations rather than simply pushing through.

    This matters particularly in industrial electrical and mechanical trades, where the consequences of working beyond one’s genuine competence, particularly around live equipment and safety critical systems, are more serious than in many other trades. A culture that allows an apprentice to acknowledge uncertainty and ask for help, without it being treated as a weakness, produces both safer outcomes and, over time, more capable and confident tradespeople.

    How to Apply

    BevTech accepts apprenticeship and traineeship enquiries throughout the year, though formal intake typically aligns with the standard Queensland apprenticeship calendar. Prospective apprentices and trainees are encouraged to reach out directly to discuss current opportunities, whether in electrical, mechanical fabrication, or process and packaging traineeship pathways, rather than waiting for a specific advertised vacancy, since the business’s ongoing investment in training talent means opportunities are considered on an ongoing basis as capacity allows.

    Building the Next Generation of FMCG Trades

    Whether you are a school leaver considering a trade career, a career changer interested in industrial electrical or mechanical work, or an FMCG manufacturer wanting to understand how your engineering partner builds and retains its workforce, BevTech’s apprenticeship and traineeship approach reflects a genuine, long term commitment to the trades pipeline the entire sector depends on. To find out more about current apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities, contact BevTech at 25 Silvio St, Richlands QLD 4077, or admin@bevtech.com.au.

  • Solving the Skilled Trades Shortage in Food and Beverage Manufacturing

    Solving the Skilled Trades Shortage in Food and Beverage Manufacturing

    Australian manufacturing has faced a well documented skilled trades shortage for several years, and food and beverage manufacturing has felt this pressure particularly acutely. Electricians, fitters, and turners with genuine FMCG production environment experience, not just general trade qualification, are in short supply relative to demand, and the consequence for plant managers is a growing operational risk every time an experienced trades role becomes vacant.

    Why FMCG specifically struggles

    General trade qualification is necessary but not sufficient for many FMCG maintenance and production roles. An electrician working in a food and beverage plant needs to understand washdown rated equipment, hygiene zone requirements, and the specific control platforms, frequently Allen Bradley or Siemens, common across the sector. A fitter needs familiarity with the kind of high cycle, vibration heavy equipment typical of bottling and canning lines, and an understanding of food safe material and lubrication requirements. This sector specific layer of competency on top of base trade qualification narrows the available candidate pool considerably compared to general manufacturing or construction trades roles, and it takes time to develop even for an otherwise well qualified tradesperson moving into the industry from elsewhere.

    The operational cost of unfilled roles

    When a skilled trades role sits vacant, the operational consequences compound over time. Preventative maintenance schedules slip as remaining staff stretch to cover gaps, increasing the likelihood of reactive breakdowns down the line. Overtime cost rises as existing trades staff cover additional hours to maintain coverage, which over an extended vacancy period can approach or exceed the cost of the unfilled role itself, while also increasing fatigue related risk and staff turnover among the remaining team carrying the extra load. And in plants without adequate coverage depth, a single trades vacancy can directly compromise emergency breakdown response capability, since fewer qualified staff are available to respond when something does fail.

    Why traditional recruitment struggles to keep pace

    Standard recruitment processes for skilled trades roles, advertising, screening, interviewing, and onboarding, typically take weeks to months to fill a role even in a reasonably available labour market, and considerably longer in a genuine shortage. For a critical maintenance role, this timeline creates an extended period of operational risk that many plants cannot comfortably absorb, particularly if the vacancy was unplanned due to resignation or unexpected departure rather than a planned recruitment cycle with adequate lead time built in.

    Strategies for maintaining reliable trades coverage

    Several practical strategies help plant managers maintain trades reliability despite a tight skilled labour market. Building a relationship with a specialist FMCG labour hire provider before a vacancy occurs, rather than only reaching out reactively once a gap has already opened, allows faster access to a pre vetted pool of experienced trades when a need does arise. Cross training existing permanent staff across electrical and mechanical disciplines where practical builds internal coverage depth, reducing reliance on any single individual for critical trade functions. And maintaining accurate, accessible documentation of plant specific control systems, equipment configurations, and fault history reduces the onboarding time required for any new trades person, whether permanent or labour hire, to become genuinely effective on site.

    The value of an established labour hire relationship

    A labour hire partner with a genuine, established pool of FMCG experienced trades offers a meaningfully faster path to filling a gap than starting a permanent recruitment search from zero, since the screening, qualification verification, and industry specific competency assessment has already been done in advance of any specific vacancy. This is particularly valuable for plants that experience occasional unplanned departures or seasonal demand peaks requiring temporary additional trades coverage, since it avoids the choice between an extended vacancy and a rushed, under vetted emergency hire.

    A long term workforce partnership approach

    The most effective response to a structural skilled trades shortage is not a one off transactional labour hire arrangement reached for during a crisis, but an ongoing workforce partnership that gives a plant manager confidence in coverage continuity regardless of individual staff movements. This requires a labour hire provider with genuine depth in their available trades pool and a track record of reliability across multiple client sites within the sector, rather than a generalist agency supplying whichever tradesperson happens to be available regardless of FMCG specific experience.

    FMCG specialist trades supply

    Bevtech Engineering and Automation has supplied skilled trades, fitters, electricians, and production operators to Australia’s food and beverage manufacturing sector for over 25 years, partnering with some of the country’s largest manufacturers to ensure reliable trades coverage through both planned and unplanned workforce gaps. To build a workforce continuity plan that protects your plant against the ongoing skilled trades shortage, contact Bevtech on +61 400 881 321 or admin@bevtech.com.au, or visit 25 Silvio St, Richlands QLD.