To help aspiring engineers, United Energy and Multinet Gas in Victoria has partnered with the Australian Power Industry (API) to offer an annual bursary award to sponsor promising engineering students through their undergraduate degree. Craig Savage, General Manager Asset Management at UE says, “API has done a lot of great work in linking industry to the educational field, both at tertiary and high school level. It’s about ensuring we get the employees we need in the future and that we are doing our part for the industry to ensure students are studying the right areas to make them suitable for employment in the industry when they graduate.”
Beyond providing financial assistance to budding engineers, UE also runs a vacation program which allows students to spend their summer vacation working on real projects with experienced engineers. Manish, a current undergraduate engineer and bursary recipient currently working with the company’s Asset Management team, says that the opportunity has given him many insights, “It’s been great to gain an insight into the professional environment I’m interested in and to see what kind of work I can expect to be involved in. It’s also been very beneficial being exposed to an average day in the working life of an electrical engineer.”
In terms of the API bursary, Manish said, “It’s been very helpful in providing me with work experience, which is valuable and can otherwise be difficult to find. The financial support has been hugely helpful and it was a proud moment to get the recognition for the hard work I’d put in at high school.” Manish went on to say that he had been hesitant about the interview with API and it had boosted his confidence to know that they deemed his efforts worthwhile.
This summer UG and Mg will have six vacation students working in the business across electricity, gas and IT. From February next year, they will have nine graduates at various stages in our graduate program across both electricity and gas.
