New organisation to lead the way in water training

The Australian Water Association (AWA) and Opus International Consultants (Opus) have announced the arrival of a new registered training organisation for the water sector, AWA Opus Water Industry Training Institute (WITI).

Capacity and skills development in the water sector has been an important issue for many years. The issue came to national prominence through the National Water Commission in 2008, and AWA has been working with the industry since this time to keep the water skills issue on the national agenda.

AWA Chief Executive Tom Mollenkopf says WITI has been set up to ensure that AWA can continue to assist industry to meet these skill needs.

“AWA is the leading water sector body in Australia, and Opus is the owner of the Environmental Training Centre (ETC), the dominant provider of water industry training in New Zealand. AWA’s relationship with the water industry, and Opus’ experience over 60 years in delivering water training in New Zealand, make this partnership ideal,” said Mollenkopf.

“Through this unique partnership, we will be able to deliver efficient and responsive training programs to industry. The establishment of this joint venture RTO will bring a sharp commercial focus to the challenge of delivering quality training particularly in hard-to-service areas of rural and regional Australia.”

Opus Managing Director Australia Melvyn Maylin said that, as a leading consultant in the water sector, Opus provides design and technical advisory services throughout the life cycle of infrastructure assets. This includes provision of operator training which is seen as an essential ingredient in enhancing infrastructure security.

“We are delighted to team with AWA to bring operator training to the place where clients need it; their own patch,” said Maylin.

Initially WITI will focus on delivering NWP30107 Certificate III in Water Operations and intends to provide NWP20107 Certificate II in Water Operations in the future, upon application. Qualifications initially focusing on water treatment, wastewater treatment and reticulation and distribution will be offered and can be customised to suit workplace needs.

In the future WITI will also offer short courses based on clusters of units of competency as required for the accreditation of employees.

You can meet the WITI team at Australia’s largest water conference and exhibition, Ozwater, which will be held from 8-10 May.