Mr Kerry Clarke (Head Industry Division, DMO) and Mr Richard Kirkby (Chairman, H.I.Fraser) sign the 50th SADI agreement

It was celebrations all around when H.I.Fraser Pty Ltd and the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) signed the 50th Skilling Australia’s Defence Industry (SADI) agreement in Canberra recently.

This significant milestone represents a joint commitment between DMO and H.I. Fraser to spend over $2.2 million on defence-specific professional and technical training and will provide H.I. Fraser with 88 additional training opportunities.

Kerry Clarke, Head Industry Division said “Fifity agreements are really a big deal. This program’s been running for around three years now and I know that there is an extraordinary amount of effort that goes into making these arrangements come together."

There was also another special reason for H.I. Fraser to celebrate – their 50 years of working with the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Richard Kirkby, Chairman of H.I. Fraser stressed the important relationship that Defence and Industry have. “While we’ve been working with Defence over these years, we’ve seen a steady improvement in the professionalism of Defence and we’ve tried to keep up with that. So I think that the SADI arrangement for us is 88 good reasons how we can improve our professionalism even more so we can continue to do what we need to do for the ADF," said Mr Kirkby.

The SADI program provides financial support for the direct costs of training. Defence Primes and Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) working on Defence acquisition and sustainment contracts are encouraged to apply for the funding. To date there has been over $30 million committed to skilling the defence industry.

For more information about the SADI Program visit http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/id/sadi/index.cfm

Celebrations all round