PWR Advanced Cooling Technology has grown to be one of Australia’s manufacturing success stories.
What started as a two-person operation in Currumbin has grown into a Gold Coast employer of around 500 people, supplying precision cooling systems to road cars, F1 teams, Supercars, as well as an expanding aerospace division.
PWR’s new facility stretches approximately 300 metres, purpose-built to manufacture and test the world’s most advanced thermal management solutions.
In aerospace, they hold AS9100 certification, the most rigorous quality standard in the industry, opening doors to the world’s most advanced defence and aerospace programs.
But behind the technology is a workforce built deliberately, person by person, through a training model that includes a dedicated training space built into their new facility, combining theoretical learning and hands-on practical experience.
The PWR Academy now runs MEM31925 Certificate III training in Engineering Fabrication and MEM30219 Certificate III Engineering Fitting and Mechanical Trade in partnership with Major Training.
Around 40 apprentices annually, learn on the same equipment they will one day operate professionally, including multi-million-dollar machines that simply aren’t available in an institutional training environment.
In this episode of Major Convos Dave Camper, Training & Development Manager discusses bringing apprentice training in-house, building a manufacturing workforce and PWR Advanced Cooling Technology journey from a two-person Currumbin operation to a global aerospace and motorsport supplier.
Season 3 Episode 3 Show Notes
- 3:07 – The aerospace division is overtaking motorsport in demand. Electric lift technology and battery cooling for future air taxis.
- 4:03 – Precision engineering in F1: PWR supplies cooling systems, while everything else is built in-house by the teams. PWR runs its own wind tunnel that F1 teams use for testing.
- 4:29 – Matt reflects on touring PWR’s old Yatala facility and watching apprentices’ hand-build micro matrix cooling tubes finer than a strand of hair.
- 6:43 – “Manufacturing is dead in Australia” gets debunked. PWR has picked up export awards along the way
- 7:07 – AS9100 aerospace certification, the compliance bar required to work in defence and aerospace programs.
- 8:10 – Dave’s career path: mechanic at 10, into Supercars for a decade, a stint managing an engineering company in Newcastle, then an RTO manager role before landing at PWR.
- 10:07 – How Dave got the PWR job: he applied for three separate listed roles, and PWR came back with a role that didn’t exist yet, built around his mix of training, engineering, and motorsport experience.
- 10:59 – The vision for the PWR Academy takes shape alongside the new facility, with founder Kees target of 100 apprentices (currently around 40 running at once).
- 11:57 – The trades on offer: engineering fabrication (sheet metal), engineering fitting and machining, plus one electrical apprentice.
- 12:18 – The Riviera connection: PWR toured Riv’s apprenticeship setup and used it as a guide for their own program.
- 13:36 – A shared philosophy between PWR and Riviera: both owners invest in people, not just product.
- 17:12 – The case for bespoke training: PWR cuts irrelevant content (arc welding, stick welding) and keeps only what actually applies to their apprentices.
- 17:52 – The options PWR weighed: bring in an external trainer, run training in-house with RTO support, or become an RTO themselves.
- 18:21 – Why PWR didn’t become an RTO: Dave’s own experience covering a vacant compliance officer role for 12 months made the risk clear. “Why would we want to invest so much time and effort into managing risk? That’s not what we do.”
- 20:02 – Managing the culture shift of bringing training in-house, including the flexibility to move training days around without disrupting external providers.
- 21:12 – One rule PWR set from day one: if an apprentice is scheduled for training, they’re off the production floor, no exceptions.
- 22:09 – The case for growing your own talent in a tight skilled-labour market, especially in machining.
- 23:05 – Lonnie’s story: started on work experience, moved through her apprenticeship, now runs a cell operating multi-million-dollar machines.
- 24:25 – Why in-house training gives apprentices time on genuinely leading-edge equipment, instead of gear that’s already outdated by the time it reaches a public RTO.
- 25:56 – Matt makes the point that 95-98% of an apprentice’s actual training time happens in the workplace, not with the RTO, regardless of program scale.
- 26:47 – The PWR DNA: respect, passion, and teamwork, unpacked as simple, tangible values rather than wall art.
- 29:09 – Getting the production team on board with the training model took longer for some than others, but the senior leadership team drove it from the top.
- 33:02 – Building the internal training team: James moved from production into a training role, and new trainers spend time in production first to understand the business before taking on training responsibilities.
- 35:00 – Lessons learned six months into delivering training in-house, and Dave’s advice for other businesses considering the same move: have the right conversations early, embrace “progress over perfection,” and lean on partners rather than overthinking it.
- 39:03 – What’s misunderstood about manufacturing and trades: school visits reveal most people still picture a dirty workshop, when PWR’s 300-metre facility looks closer to a lab.
- 42:17 – US and UK workforce development, including the challenge of running work experience programs in the UK where young people can’t be on the factory floor.
- 43:37 – Comparing apprenticeship models: in some US states, electricians qualify in 17 weeks with no apprenticeship, a contrast Dave and Matt use to highlight the value of Australia’s system.
- 50:32 – Looking ahead to 2030 and Keith’s target of 100 apprentices.
Dave Camper joined the Major Convos podcast to talk training, trades and what it really takes to build a world-class manufacturing workforce on the Gold Coast.
Catch the full episode of Major Convos, listening to Dave Camper’s insights on Spotify or watch it on YouTube.
