As the year draws to a close, Engineers Australia \ would like to take a moment to express thanks to our South Australian members for your continued support.  This will be the last edition of Engineering News for 2024. This is a great time to reflect on the achievements of our members and committee groups, and your contributions to the engineering profession and community.   

What a year we’ve had. We’ve seen the launch of the Problem Based Learning Program in primary schools, record attendance numbers at our International Women in Engineering Day breakfast, the Australasian Engineering Heritage Conference 2024 in Adelaide and thousands of students and parents speaking with our team and volunteers at the 2024 Adelaide Careers and Employment Expo. 

As an Engineers Australia member, you are at the heart of the work we do to create positive, sustainable change that has an impact on the community. Your engineering expertise and guidance helps us to work with business, government and universities to push for progress and we’d like to thank you for the invaluable insight you’ve provided across the year. 

Working with the Department for Education we were able to see our STEM in schools vision come to fruition through the Problem Based Learning pilot. Engineers Australia members teamed up with Charles Campbell College and Greenwith Primary to deliver the program to 220 year 5 and 6 students. Thanks to our members at WSP and WGA for volunteering your time and knowledge to engage with our future pipeline of engineers and spark the interest in engineering. The feedback was brilliant from all participants and we are now in the initial stages of an extended offering in 2025.   

We embarked on an ambitious plan to host a booth at the Adelaide Careers and Employment Expo with only two weeks’ notice to pull together our volunteer team, AV requirements and merchandise. What a fabulous two days it was, with interested students and parents at times four deep waiting to chat with our marvellous members. To those who responded to our call, we cannot thank you enough – absolute champions! 

Through our Diversity and Inclusion sub-committee we delivered a series of events tailored to the overseas-qualified engineers community. These events saw many guest speakers along with several of our members sharing their own experiences on migrating to South Australia and the challenges and tips and tricks to succeed in landing your first engineering role. We were delighted to have the support of The Hon Zoe Bettison MP, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, SA Multi Cultural Commission and the Department for State Development as we provided our many attendees with the opportunity to network and learn across our engineering community.    

Some of our other highlights included: 

• The boardroom lunch series with our guest speakers The Hon Susan Close MP and Deputy Premier of South Australia Chris Menz, the CEO of Renewal SA Reg Carruthers, the Director Advanced Test and Training Environment in the Air Force and Chris Davies, Group Manager Future Energy Systems AEMO  
• Our leadership in risk and insurance industry lunch brought together perspectives from government, law, insurance and construction representatives  
• A tour of Parliament House, hosted by The Hon Mira El Dannawi MLC.

In the new year we’ll be embarking on our regional visits – first stop Whyalla. The South Australia team would love to hear from our members in that region about what you think Engineers Australia could assist you with. 

We will begin recruiting more volunteers for the expanded Problem Based Learning program in primary schools. Email the SA team if you’re interested in volunteering. Through this program we’ll be looking to establish meaningful engagement with secondary school students to offer an insider’s knowledge of a career in engineering. 

Keep an eye out for future editions of Engineering News to learn more.

Engineers Australia’s holiday shutdown period will run from 20 December 2024 to 3 January 2025 inclusive. During this time our office will be closed and there will not be any events held.   

We have all enjoyed working with our members this year and wish you all the very best over the holiday period and into 2025.   

The SA team – Jan, Leah, Cara, Lucie and Jason.