The Professional Year in Engineering program, offered by Engineering Education Australia (EEA), is a job-preparedness program for recent graduates that develops and refines their practical workplace skills, while also providing companies with invaluable recruitment opportunities.
The program provides graduates with outstanding work prospects via a 12-week internship, enabling them to take that initial step in their careers.
It also provides participating companies with access to an outstanding pool of international talent that can enrich their employment teams and enhance their own business prospects.
According to Ben Blowers, Graduate Programs Manager at Engineering Education Australia, the program is aimed specifically at international students from diverse cultural backgrounds.
While these students possess all the technical knowledge required to kick-start their professional careers, they may still need some assistance with the other skills needed to navigate the workplace.
“We have international students in Australia who are getting great results and completing their bachelor’s and master’s degrees, however they still have a difficult time finding work here,” said Blowers. “The reason they might struggle to find work is that it’s very easy to stay in your comfort zone while at university, and to their disadvantage, international students often network with students of a similar cultural background.
“Essentially the program is designed to fill in the gaps that are left after university – learning how to write a good CV, how to function in the workplace, whom to talk to, how to talk to people, and how to write an effective email.”
“These things may sound basic, but they’re vitally important. Often international students haven’t gained these skills or training while at university. These ‘soft’ skills can be the final piece of the puzzle for engineering professionals – technical skills aren’t always enough.”
The Professional Year program consists of two parts – the first being a 32-week classroom-based program with a professional training provider such as The Moreland Group, Monash University, Navitas, QIBA or Holmesglen.
EEA’s partner providers impart a comprehensive range of key career and workplace skills to participants. This includes career planning, preparing a tailored job application, workplace health and safety, understanding professional standards and systems, effective networking, organisation structures and teamwork, managing professional performance, project management, and developing business proposals.
The classroom program is followed by a 12-week internship that helps budding engineers launch their careers by giving them key contacts, real world experience, and that all-important opening entry on their resumes.
In addition to providing a host of benefits to recent graduates eager to join the workforce, the Professional Year is also an excellent source of recruitment opportunities for businesses that participate in the internship phase.
“From a company’s point of view, they gain access to a whole new range of work candidates that they’ve perhaps never considered as a source before,” said Blowers. “Not only people who can design fantastic structures and really know their stuff, but people who can bring a different skill-set as well. Potential employees that communicate well, and are perhaps multi-lingual.”
Companies that provide internships speak highly of the benefits of the program for themselves, as well as the future job prospects for participants.
“From our point of view we think the Professional Year in Engineering program is great,” said Josh Minuzzo of Ladcom Design – an Australian company specialising in end-to-end technical design for the telecommunications industry.
“The people EEA’s partner organisations have supplied in the past have always been respectful and pretty much ready to get their heads down and moving. Graduates listen to instructions, and have that willingness to learn.
“The biggest benefit the program brings is a fresh outlook. Participants might come straight from university or other areas of employment, so you get a fresh take on things and fresh ideas. This is always a positive when it comes to growing bigger.”
Minuzzo also notes that the program provides an ample source of ongoing employment opportunities to both interns and businesses.
“We’ve taken on about 20 interns since I’ve been here, of which I’d say we have about a 65% -70% strike rate – we’ve either taken them on board ourselves, or recommended them to other companies within our area.”
The Professional Year in Engineering is a lucrative proposition for all participants, on both sides of the equation, providing recent graduates with excellent training and work opportunities, while giving companies access to the talent they need to improve their future business prospects.