KUCHING – Twenty-five participants who completed a four-week training program on basic foundry at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus were recently presented with certificates.
The four-week program, Basic foundry: Shaping of metals, foundry and casting, was aimed to provide participants with a basic understanding of engineering materials and manufacturing processes and emphasised the applications and importance in shaping of metals.
The program was designed by Swinburne Sarawak and offered in collaboration with the State Government as part of its plan in preparing human capital for the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), and was funded by the State Planning Unit (SPU) via the State Ministry of Industrial Development (MID).
The 25 participants, who hailed from throughout the state, were presented with the certificates by Pro Vice-Chancellor Helmut Lueckenhausen.
Present to witness the event were Edward Nyalang Bandar, Assistant Secretary of the MID, and Mohd Irwan Bin Bahari, Principal Assistant Director of the SPU. Also in attendance were heads of schools from the universities four schools and senior academics.
In his speech, Professor Lueckenhausen congratulated the participants for successfully completing the program and urged them to contribute to the welfare of Sarawak.
Brendan Jawan, 24, who is due to graduate with a degree in civil engineering at a public university next year, found the program useful.
“This is something new for me and it is really useful especially in learning how metals are shaped or cast. This is different from what I’ve studied,” he said.
Brendan said the hands-on training was a good experience and it involved welding, drilling, milling and simple casting work.
“The lecturers were very knowledgeable about the industry shared their experience with us,” he said, referring to Swinburne Sarawak academics who delivered the program.
Kong Teck Wi, assistant manager of an aluminium smelting plant based in Mukah, and three of his colleagues concurred.
“The course is very general so I also learned how to process different types of metals. It has widened my knowledge because at my plant we only process aluminium,” Fong said, adding that some of the knowledge they have gained can be put into practice at their plant.