Engineering Production Worker
What the work is
Performs a range of production process tasks to refine and treat metals and mineral ore, fire ceramics, and operate plant to produce and finish metal products such as rods, tubing and structural shapes and moulds for casting.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Interprets engineering production schematics and blueprints
- Operates and monitors rolling plant, machinery and equipment to process mineral ore
- Operates and adjusts production plant to shape metal stock and castings, and cut sheet metal
- Operates computer-controlled production plant
- Operates furnaces and quenching plant to smelt and change the structure of metals
- Operates welding and electroplating plant
- Casts molten metal and operates plant to draw metal wire through dies
- Uses kilns and ovens to fire ceramics
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a metal foundry and rolling plant in a fictional industrial estate, making castings, bar and wire. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A pour goes smoothly and the first casting out of the mould is exactly right
- The mill runs for a whole shift without a single stop, and the tally is the best of the month
- A tricky mould you prepared with care gets a quiet nod from the engineer
Hard days
- Heat, noise and heavy protective gear on a long summer shift
- A casting comes out flawed and a whole morning's work has to be melted down again
- A quality problem that nobody can find the cause of, while orders pile up
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 732231, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.