A Wollongong business leader whose highest priority and greatest philosophy is to keep employing and training young people will continue to do so despite speculation about the future of BlueScope Steel.
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Thomas & Coffey's Wollongong general manager Peter Buckley said he did not plan to change that mindset given all the discussion he had heard this week about the future of the steel and manufacturing industry in the Illawarra.
"We have 30 apprentices in total and we put on eight this year," Mr Buckley said.
"We are looking at putting on 12 next year and we are going to put on another graduate engineer. We are also going to look to put on more female tradespeople and apprentices."
Thomas & Coffey has five engineers and Mr Buckley said the firm was not changing its policy after the recent speculation about BlueScope's future.
"We want to keep employing permanent people and maintaining our workforce in steady employment," he said.
"And we also want to support our customers locally and abroad and all around Australia. We have 250 staff based here in the Illawarra. From our perspective, we just want to maintain a quality-focused workforce that also focuses on safety."
Mr Buckley said he and the company wanted to ensure it kept its staff safe in every respect. Many of them were young and represented the future.
He said among the next generation of leaders at Thomas & Coffey were first-year fitter and machinist apprentice Brendan den Hoedt, the company's first female tradesperson Megan Gregory, who is an electrician, and graduate mechanical engineer from the University of NSW Chris Jansen.
"We have so many young people on board who are committed to training, upskilling themselves as well as each other and the rest of the workforce."
Mr Buckley said about half of Thomas & Coffey's business came from BlueScope Steel and he was confident it would be a major client for many years to come. The company had long-term relationship with BlueScope Steel.
He said Thomas & Coffey's commitment to continue to train and develop new people in the manufacturing sector would be positive reinforcement for its No 1 client because it believed in BlueScope and its future.
"We continually try to support our valued clients through a highly skilled and permanent workforce," he said.
"We are trying to provide value to BlueScope with our specialised trades teams, engineers, project managers."
He said Thomas & Coffey's employment strategy - taking on young apprentices and graduate engineers, upskilling staff, and employing more female tradespeople - would remain.
Mr Buckley was appointed general manager of Thomas & Coffey's Wollongong operations in April 2014 after originally being appointed at the company six years earlier as business development manager.
When he took over from Phil Brodie, he said a key to retaining a large workforce in the Illawarra had been the stability that came from having a permanent workforce.
"My main goal throughout my whole career has been to employ people," he said.
"I think over the 21 years we have probably employed thousands of people in Wollongong. Apprentices have always been a high priority. We have been one of the largest employers of apprentices and trainees in the Illawarra. In the good times, we were taking on between 16 and 20 apprentices a year."
Mr Buckley said that focus would continue.