Developing Aussie home-grown talent in an international market

Abstract

With the current skills shortage in the engineering profession and the need for more experienced engineers, it is important for Australian engineering companies to not only rely on importing skilled engineers from overseas to fulfil current day demands, but also to focus on developing young Australian engineers for the future.

Aker Solutions Australia has implemented a training and development program for its employees by seconding them into the head office in Oslo, Norway for both technical and personal development. The program provides many positive outcomes for both the company and the employees including: knowledge transfer and alignment between the international offices, developing and improving the talent of Australian engineers, improving communications between the offices and providing the Oslo office with much needed resources. The program was initiated in 2006 and so far nine employees have been sent across the globe for training.

In this time the employees have had the opportunity to work on new technological developments in gas processing, advanced concept development studies and large scale engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects. Working internationally has also provided Australian engineers with a chance to interact with a number of skilled people from diverse backgrounds, learn new languages and embrace different cultures. The program to date has had much success, with both clients and the Aker Solutions office in Norway requesting continuation of the Australian engineers’ services while one of the engineers—Jacqui Driver—won best paper at the 2007 APPEA conference for her work in Oslo on novel offshore LNG solutions.