PACCAR Australia, praised for its loyal staff and long serving personnel has been honoured in the Employer of the Year category at the Victorian Training Awards for 2018.
Operations Director PACCAR Australia Tom Cooperaccepted the award at the event Melbourne recently
“This award provides important recognition of PACCAR Australia’s amazing, wonderful and truly valued employees, suppliers and dealers who continue to provide that little bit extra every day to ensure our customers receive the best product we can produce,” said Tom Copper
“This acknowledgement is testament to their commitment to their work, the company and the customers and it’s gratifying to be regarded as an exemplary employer. At PACCAR Australia, we strive for quality in the products and services we provide. In order to achieve this, we need excellent people. We attract highly talented people and also provide our staff with the necessary tools, training and development to excel”, Tom added.
Cooper explained the critical importance ongoing training played during a recent growth cycle.
“In 2017, we doubled our workforce to accommodate the rapidly escalating demand for Kenworth product. It was imperative that these new employees were seamlessly assimilated into our business, as the safety of all of our employees and the quality of our vehicles could not be compromised. This was challenging, but prior training for our existing employees over previous years allowed us to spread the load, so all our new employees were appropriately mentored and monitored,” he said.
The Employer of the Year Award recognises an enterprise which has achieved excellence in the provision of ‘nationally recognised training’ for its employees.
‘Nationally recognised training’ refers to training that is based on a national training package or accredited course that results in an individual receiving a formal qualification or statement of attainment issued by a registered training provider.
Now in its 64th year, the Victorian Training Awards celebrate excellence in the training system, with 39 finalists including apprentices, trainees, students, employers, teachers, industry collaboration and training providers across 13 categories attend the gala awards night. The awards are a celebration of the achievements of vocational education students, teachers and training providers and the innovation of businesses who deliver training across Victoria.
This latest award continues an admirable track record for PACCAR Australia, which has twice before won the Victorian State Government’s Employer of the Year(WPC category) Training Awards, and the Federal Government’sIndustry Training Award for Manufacturing, in 2012 and 2007, as well as AHRI Awards for Talent Development and Management in2017 and 2014.
“This is one of Victoria’s great manufacturing success stories.” saidthe Hon. Ben Carroll, Minister for Industry and Employment when presenting the 2018 award.
PACCAR Australia is an automotive manufacturer that produces worlds-best trucks, contributing to local and national manufacturing employment opportunities generating direct and indirect employment that extends from staff, to suppliers, dealer network and customers located throughout Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
PACCAR Australia has shown recently it is committed to providing new investment and manufacturing capabilities in Australia, backed by its parent company, PACCAR Inc.
At the recent launch of the first Australian assembled DAF truck to come off the production line in Melbourne, the company announced that over the next three years it will double the size of its Bayswater plant an investment believed to be around $AUD30 million.
The company said in its statement that investment on this scale sends a clear message to employees, the dealer network, customer base, and the road transport industry at large, that PACCAR Australia is committed to manufacturing and assembling for the long term.
the Victorian Training Awards Employer of the Year to Tom Cooper, Operations Director, PACCAR Australia.
