Article written by Chris Stoltz FIEAust CPEng EngExec NER, Engineers Australia Victorian President.
When I reflect on 2016, what immediately comes to mind is the unprecedented level of engagement between ourselves in the Division and decision-makers across governments, academia, and the engineering profession at large.
This year we welcomed the Prime Minister; the Governor of Victoria; Australia’s Chief Scientist; the Chief Technology Officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation; the CEOs of Siemens, McConnell Dowell, Infrastructure Australia and Roads Australia; the engineering Heads of School at Swinburne; RMIT and Deakin universities; LaTrobe Valley Councillors; the Victorian finalists of the F1 in Schools Program; and most importantly an overwhelming number of members who took the opportunity to visited us to see, firsthand, how we are connecting them with the profession.
Advocating for the profession, we have responded to a number of State Government policy initiatives, including the Future Industries Fund; Infrastructure Victoria; a registration system for Victoria’s engineers; as well as a Budget submission.
As always, we continue to focus on tomorrow’s engineers, and growing our education program with the intent on introducing schoolchildren to the engineering profession. In October, we hosted the State Finals of the F1 in Schools Challenge – a model race car competition open to children from Years 5 – 12.
We have also supported a number of public fora across Victoria to promote the impact of engineering on both regional and rural communities. Closely aligned to our decentralisation strategy, Engineers Australia is helping to promote economic development and job creation outside of the Melbourne metropolitan region. A good example of this was our support of Latrobe City Council’s Economic Development Strategy, designed to attract new industries to the municipality and foster sustainability and jobs growth for the region.
There were certainly positive signs of the Division’s outreach program working. This year we experienced strong growth in member participation with a number of industry partners hosting their Continuous Professional Development (CPD) events at our premises, complementing the CPD program designed and delivered by our legion of Senior Office Bearers.
While all this activity was taking place, there was a shift in leadership with Glenda Graham moving to a national stakeholder engagement role and Herve Carlos taking on the management of Victoria Division. I very much support this transition and look forward to working with Herve to further strength the Engineers Australia brand and reinforce our reputation as the trusted voice of the profession.
This year, we also hosted the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (AEEA) Victoria, where the best projects and engineering professionals were recognised and celebrated. I was delighted to hear that Darren Green AFIEAust and Robert Ladd AFIEAust CPEngA EngExec NER IntETn(Aus) went on to receive the national awards for Engineering Associate and Young Engineering Associate of the Year respectively. Visit the AEEA website to see the full list of winners.
As the year draws to a close, let me say a word of thanks to the Victoria Division Committee for their outstanding work in promoting not only the work of the Division, but the profession as a whole. In this regard let me pay tribute to Paul Collier FIEAust CPEng EngExec NER and Richard Drew FIEAust CPEng EngExec NER, who will complete their tenure on the Committee at the end of this year.
And as I look ahead to 2017, one area where we still have lots more work to do is the way we encourage and embrace diversity in the engineering workplace. I know our CEO Stephen Durkin has been a tireless champion for a more inclusive workforce, and it is that leadership we should all espouse. I have heard it said many times that diversity makes good business sense. By opening ourselves to a diversity of people and ideas, our profession and by extension the communities we serve, will reap enormous benefits.
So, I urge all of you to lend your voice to the chorus of appeal for all peoples to be represented throughout the engineering profession.
Finally, let me take this opportunity to wish all our members, their family and friends a joyous and safe festive season, and I trust that 2017 will be a prosperous one for you and our profession.
Image: The Prime Minister of Australia visits Engineers Australia's Melbourne office, 2016.