Last week’s GMC Immersion Day took teachers from seven local schools to see innovative local manufacturing happening at Rendine Construction, GT Recycling and Deakin University.
Teachers got a taste of what’s on offer for students taking part in GMC’s school programs – Girls Leading Advanced Manufacturing (GLAM), Geelong Future Leaders of Industry (GFLOI) and World of Work (WoW).
The first stop at Modularity by Rendine, saw the group get a first-hand look at a two-storey modular portable building that can be transported in 10 separate pieces and set up and ready in a few weeks for school and kindergarten classes.
Rendine also showed the group a sustainable 1-bedroom prototype house, that was created in just two weeks and features sustainable and second life components. A stand-out for the group was the plastic wall, supplied by Saveboard, that’s fully made in Australia from recycled bottles – including labels and bottle tops – all visible in the wall!
The group then visited GT Recycling to see their innovative plastics processing, which takes commercial plastics (wraps and tubs) and processes them into different sized pallets. The pallets can then be re-used to make wheelie bins for councils, plastic pot plant containers and even spacers in concrete building slabs.
Finally, the tour finished at Deakin University with an up-close look at the high-tech equipment, simulators and research projects which have spurred the commercialisation of innovative businesses, such as FLAIM Systems and Carbon Revolution.
This important work helps showcase the many and varied manufacturing career pathways available to students through STEM studies, as well as highlighting the incredible manufacturing capability in our region.
Thanks to the Department of Education, GT Recycling, Rendine Construction, Geelong Tech School and Deakin University as well as the many GMC members who donated gifts for our showbags.