With establishment of AKVA Academy, AKVA group Chile has found a way to secure qualified labor, and also to provide new opportunities and promote gender equality.
“AKVA Academy is about people, opportunities and realizing potential. With the great professional knowledge and experience our team has, and our responsibility as a company to create new work opportunities, we have developed courses that ensure new staff are trained according to the AKVA standards,” says Andrew Campbell, Regional President Americas and Australasia.
The welder’s training program began in January 2018. Since then, several courses have been completed with excellent results. Eight welders graduated from the first course at the end of February, and due to its success, a second class was offered, graduating ten more welders on the 20th of April. Another course was then designed specifically to address the issue of gender equality in the production area of the company.
“Promoting the involvement of women in the different parts of the production processes is about building a sustainable future within our community,” Campbell says.
The welding course for women, focusing on theoretical and practical instruction, began on the 7th of May and graduated nine female apprentices on the 21st of June. They come from different areas – unrelated to welding – such as risk prevention, social work, and family management, and are all now integrated into different areas of the production department where they continue perfecting their welding skills and production knowledge.
Today, AKVA group Chile has a new and diverse group of well-trained welders, fully integrated into the company’s production team.
“As AKVA group Chile, we are very pleased with the results of AKVA Academy. We will continue promoting these kinds of opportunities and doing everything necessary to be a responsible partner to our clients,” Campbell concludes.