Enormous Interest in Rural/Regional Engineering Jobs
‘The Brolga Project’ is an initiative which is offering university students, who have to do work experience as part of their curriculum, the opportunity to do that work experience with businesses in rural and regional Australia.
The ultimate goal of the project is to provide university students, most who hail from metropolitan backgrounds, the opportunity to experience life and work in the regions in the hope that many will enjoy the experience enough to return at the completion of their studies.
There has been phenomenal enthusiasm from students in the project, with 102 Expressions of Interest in the first 93 days of the project’s launch. This is without any advertising other than for the project to be placed in some university’s career centres and online.
The number of engineers applying reflects the second highest volume of students, it is topped by accountancy at 40 percent, with the remaining students studying law, nursing, vet science, design, IT, journalism, environment, agriculture, community development, human resource, marketing or urban planning.
The project is the initiative of a Brisbane-based, but Western-Queensland born man, Richard Cowley, who developed the idea while studying at USQ in Toowoomba as a mature age student. Currently running under the auspices of a private company, the future structure of the project will be determined by feedback from participants and organisations.
Hosting a student will involve some start-up costs initially, but the student placement should also be profit generating, as businesses that are looking for staff are doing so to increase productivity and therefore profits. Start-up costs are going to vary from student to student, and between businesses. For example, a student looking for three weeks of unpaid work experience may well need assistance to travel to the placement business and with accommodation when they get there, but students on two to four months of paid vacation work will not need the same level of assistance. The project’s administration costs are minimal.
Businesses wishing to know more about the project can complete a non-binding Expression of Interest at www.brolgaproject.com.au/business, email richard@brolgaproject.com.au or call (07) 3366 1005 for more information.
http://www.brolgaproject.com.au
