Teens to Keep Submarine and Shipbuilding Ambitions Afloat
24 March 2025, Australia
In an Australian first, high schoolers nationally will have access to a groundbreaking new government-backed program, Forge Your Future, which will unlock career pathways into high-demand STEM careers in South Australia’s defence industry—including its burgeoning shipbuilding and nuclear-powered submarine sectors.
Designed and delivered by Australian-founded global tech companies, WithYouWithMe (WYWM) and Year13, Forge Your Future provides students with tools, connections, education, and industry experience to fast track securing meaningful and well-paid roles in leading defence industry companies with operations in SA.
Top employers Babcock and BAE Systems are among the first to support the program and advertise jobs and career opportunities to participating students.
Around 2,500 high schoolers in South Australia will participate in Forge Your Future over the next 12 months, and 1300+ schools nationally will have access to the program via Year13’s Career Tools platform.
The program will give students insights into STEM fields that are exciting and in high demand—such as engineering, trades, digital & ICT, and program management—equipping them with the necessary practical support to gain skills in fast growth areas.
New research by Year13 reveals over a quarter of young Australians (27%) are interested in STEM or trades careers in the defence industry in South Australia, while one in six (16%) would even consider relocating to SA to secure this type of work.
Despite the enthusiasm, 29% of young people say their lack of awareness of STEM defence industry career pathways is a barrier to pursuing work in the sector.
The majority recognise that STEM roles are well-paid (69%) and offer long-term career stability (49%) which is likely why nearly half (45%) are eager to learn more about career opportunities in the defence industry sector.
Given one in four (26%) young people mistakenly believe military service is a requirement to work in the defence industry, Forge Your Future will educate students on the distinct difference between the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the defence industry sector where employees do not serve in the army, air force, or navy.
Forge Your Future is an innovative solution to help address critical skills shortages in the defence industry sector. Australia will need 20,000 highly skilled workers to support its nuclear-powered submarine ambitions over the coming decades. And according to IBISWorld, the nation's shipbuilding and repair sector is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 11.8% over the next five years.
How Forge Your Future works
Forge Your Future is a comprehensive 12 month program comprised of virtual and in-person activities including: in-school events and online engagement, personalised skills assessments, career matching, learning and development for job-readiness, interactive e-learning modules, mentorship with industry professionals, connections with defence primes, virtual work experience, and career events with defence industry employers.
The program utilises AI-powered aptitude assessments and predictive analytics to provide students with deep insight into their innate cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, and learning potential and match them to real career pathways, with a new level of scientific precision and certainty.
Forge Your Future leverages WithYouWithMe’s defence industry expertise and tech platform; Year13’s Career Tools platform, which is embedded in South Australian state schools and national schools; and specialist mentoring capabilities from Art of Mentoring.
WithYouWithMe CEO Tom Larter, said: “The defence industry is rich with career opportunities but pathways into the sector are confusing for young people to navigate. Forge Your Future removes the guesswork by connecting students with the right training and employers so they can land work in a fast growing and meaningful sector.”
“Forge Your Future is a cutting-edge initiative that uses AI-driven and behavioural science-based assessments to provide students with deep insight into their natural strengths and match them to real career pathways. It flips the traditional workforce model on its head and puts the student in the driver’s seat.”
Year13 Co-Founder Will Stubley, said: "Forge Your Future is about connecting young Australians with career opportunities in South Australia's booming defence industry sector. This is an exciting sector with various highly rewarding STEM careers.
“By aligning their skills and interests with pathways in shipbuilding and advanced technologies we’re helping them discover careers that can both support them and their country in the years ahead. Through this initiative we’re ensuring that young people leave school today informed and ready to take on our nation’s greatest projects and challenges.”
About the Research
Online survey of 1013 Australians aged 15-24.
Conducted in February 2025.
About WithYouWithMe
WithYouWithMe (WYWM) is an Australian-founded global tech company that helps organisations fully utilise their workforces, by perpetually evolving the skills they have into the skills they need. WYWM partners with organisations across Australia, New Zealand, North America and the United Kingdom, deploying its software to improve the skills of their people, drive retention, enable mobility and build workforce productivity by focusing on a skills based management approach. The organisation’s award-winning HR software, Potential, is an employee activation platform that identifies, grows and mobilises an individual’s skills to align with an organisation’s needs. WYWM also runs a free social impact program aimed at supporting under-represented individuals – including military veterans, Indigenous communities, neurodiverse individuals and women in tech – to break into meaningful careers through a skills-based hiring model. This program has helped more than 120,000 people around the world to find their potential and reskill for the digital economy.
About Year13
Founded in 2011, Year13 is a Gen Z Publisher and Ed-tech whose purpose is to support young people to live happier, healthier and more fulfilled lives, and whose mission is to upgrade the school-to-work transition. Year13’s suite of brands includes Career Tools, Australia’s largest school to work transition platform, with over 1250+ subscribing schools. In 2023, Year13 acquired Good Education Group, including The Good Universities Guide, The Good Schools Guide and Studies in Australia, together with Australia’s most comprehensive database of schools, universities and training providers.