Training & Careers

Recognition agreement drives enhanced engineering mobility, collaboration between Australia, Spain

ENGINEERS from Australia and Spain will enjoy streamlined access to working in either country through a new mutual recognition agreement (MRA) between Engineers Australia and the General Council of Official Colleges of Industrial Engineers (CGCOII), Spain’s governing body for the industrial engineering profession.

The agreement was formalised by Engineers Australia CEO Romilly Madew AO and CGOII president Cesar Franco at an online ceremony hosted by the Australian Ambassador to Spain, Sophia McIntyre.

Speaking at the signing, Engineers Australia’s Ms Madew said, “As we look to the global challenges of our time – from ensuring our built environment is sustainable and resilient to climate impacts, to developing inclusive technologies and innovations – the role of engineers has never been more important. 

“Enabling skilled engineers to work across borders is an incredibly important part of addressing these challenges. That is why we have international mobility agreements which enable our members to live and work in more than 120 countries – and why today is such a significant milestone.”

Dr Franco said, “The reality and current circumstances of both countries, Spain and Australia, have big similarities in the great need for engineers in each country. While in Spain, our Engineering Observatory estimates that 200,000 engineers will be needed in the next 10 years, Engineers Australia is aiming to reach the figure of 100,000 in the next few years.

“The mobility agreement between our engineers and the Australian ones should be an incentive for future engineers from both countries. This agreement should be the best attraction for those who are thinking of studying a career with a future: engineering.”

Australian Ambassador to Spain, Sophia McIntyre welcomed the agreement as “opening the door to greater sharing of expertise and innovation at a time of significant growth in the economic relationship between Australia and Spain, particularly given the important role of Spanish infrastructure and energy companies in our green energy transition”.

The new MRA covers members of Engineers Australia who hold a relevant engineering qualification in industrial, chemical, electrical or mechanical engineering. 

It seeks to recognise the differences in qualification standards between the two countries, providing Spanish industrial engineers a pathway to meet Engineers Australia membership requirements without the initial assessment stage. Additionally, it aims to help Australian engineers meet Spanish qualification requirements, especially the six-year European Masters.

Engineers Australia, as the voice for the engineering profession in Australia, and CGCOII, advocating for professional standards in Spain, are both committed to advancing the engineering profession and fostering international cooperation, Ms Madew said.

This partnership, initially set for three years, is the second such collaboration Engineers Australia has established with a Spanish professional body, following a similar agreement with the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (CICCP) in October 2022.

www.engineersaustralia.org.au

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HireVue’s Tom Cornell says the Great Resignation is ‘all about employer flexibility’

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business

THE GREAT RESIGNATION is proving to be a major challenge for business.

Tom Cornell, the head of assessments (APAC) at HireVue, said Australian businesses needed to prepare for the Great Resignation and convince staff that they offer a better deal than they can get anywhere else. 

Several factors contributed to the Great Resignation, he said, and while the pandemic played a crucial role, other underlying issues were also at play. While the Great Resignation gained attention in 2021, Mr Cornell said it was essential to recognise that the labour market was complex, and multiple factors contribute to employment trends.

The phenomenon also highlights the changing expectations of workers and the need for employers to adapt to evolving preferences and priorities in the workforce. 

The psychology of resignation

Mr Cornell is a hiring expert with a background in psychometrics and industrial-organisational (IO) psychology. He said the Great Resignation had put the onus on employers in ways not seen before.    

“There’s more of an onus now on the employer to make the working environment and the role itself more attractive to not only prospective but to current employees – to not only draw that talent in but to retain them,” Mr Cornell told Talking Business.

“I think that we’re seeing a lot more confidence from employees to push and ask that from their employers.

“It you think a few decades back, it was very common to have this idea of a job for life where you get a job and that offers you structure, stability and you can work your way up the ranks over the years and your pay will come with that.

“Now people are starting to question that.,” he said. “They’re moving jobs every few years, joining start-ups, trying something new.

“People are feeling more confident about trying something new.”

Employees keen to ‘try something new’

Mr Cornell said while this had accelerated during COVID – and with “everything going digital” – this trend had been apparent for many years before. Coming from the assessment space, he said the focus had been on the candidate experience.

“We’re seeing a shift away from multiple interviews and long form assessment,” Mr Cornell said.

“A lot of organisations are putting that focus on the candidate experience, and we’re seeing that translate into that it is not enough to focus on prospective employees and make sure they’re happy with the process,” he said.

“You’ve also got to ensure you can maintain and retain them once they’re in the organisation.”

Mr Cornell said this meant companies now had to listen to employees to ascertain what was important for them.

He said there was lot of research about what this new work environment meant for different generations. The older workers would value stability and the opportunity to generate wealth whereas the newer generation would be more attracted to work life balance and living and working abroad.

He said employers now focus on having employees who are agile.

“I don’t think it’s so much for the employees to flip that back on the employers and say ‘Great you want me to be agile and flexible. I want you to be agile and flexible to what I want’.”

www.hireview.com

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.

https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business-44-interview-with-tom-cornell-from-hirevue

A$200k-plus in mine rehabilitation scholarships on offer

MORE THAN $200,000 in post-graduate student scholarships is being offered by the Coal Minesite Rehabilitation Trust to help build on Queensland’s reputation as an international leader in coal mine rehabilitation.

Two scholarships valued at $40,000 a year over three years are now available through the Coal Minesite Rehabilitation Trust to post-graduate students studying at a Queensland university.

The Coal Minesite Rehabilitation Trust was established in 2007 and is overseen by the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), Queensland Government and industry representatives. 

Resources Minister Scott Stewart said the generous scholarships provide two university students with an opportunity to pursue postgraduate studies in world-leading environmental management.

“Mine rehabilitation is a key part of a company’s life of mine planning cycle to ensure better environmental outcomes and help create more jobs for Queenslanders after a mine is no longer in use,” Mr Stewart said.

“Good progress has been made in rehabilitation in Queensland and these scholarships contribute to research that will lead to even better practices.

“I support the industry’s continuing efforts to improve rehabilitation methods to ensure mining is compatible with current and future land uses,” he said.

“The scholarships will support ongoing research to identify future improvements and ensure we can have confidence in the industry’s ability to manage and reduce its impacts.”

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the scholarships are a practical and innovative way to develop world-class expertise in Queensland to lead the resources sector’s future rehabilitation practices.

“This scholarship program benefits the whole resources sector by encouraging more research and fresh thinking into how we can continually improve and refine land rehabilitation practices,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“We are now seeing current and former coal mines working to transform to a range of productive and innovative post mining land uses including agriculture, renewable energy infrastructure, native ecosystems and community development.

“The research conducted by postgraduate students over the years is making a significant contribution to understanding and implementing sustainable rehabilitation outcomes.”

Applications for the 2024 Coal Minesite Rehabilitation Scholarships are assessed against key priorities that include sustainable post-mining land uses and addressing long-term water management, Mr Macfarlane said.

More information on the 2024 Coal Minesite Rehabilitation Scholarship positions is available here.

www.qrc.org.au

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National Skills Agreement critical to grow the construction workforce immediately

THE Housing Industry Association (HIA) has welcomed the National Cabinet's announcement of the National Skills Agreement -- especially in light of the new construction industry training demand to meet the Federal Cabinet aim of 1.2 million new home completions within five years.

"The Agreement promises to invest $12.6 billion to expand and transform the vocational education and training (VET) sector to deliver quality training and reforms which address our critical skills needs,” HIA managing director, Jocelyn Martin said. 

“Earlier this year National Cabinet committed to building 1.2 million homes over the next five years. To build these much needed homes, it is critical that we have the key skills and workforce in place to enable us to achieve this target. 

“This investment is a key plank in addressing the skills shortages, strengthening our VET sector and training and upskilling workers into national priority areas including construction.

“Part of this agreement includes the establishment of nationally networked Centres of Excellence involving partnerships between TAFEs, universities, Jobs and Skills Councils and industry,” Ms Martin said.

While broadly supportive of these targeted ‘Centres of Excellence’ which can focus on key skills gaps, HIA has stressed the importance of the Australian Government broadening the focus beyond TAFEs to also recognise the key role played by industry specific training organisations.

These organisations deliver training developed by industry for industry and also have the capacity to deliver targeted skills in regional areas.

Included in the $12.6 billion funding is $100 million to support, grow and retain a quality VET workforce, $250 million to improve VET completions including women and others who face completion challenges and $142 million to improve foundation skills training capacity, quality and accessibility.

“The National Skills Agreement promises to deliver much needed changes to the VET system and the opportunity to target skills and reforms which will make a difference to our industry and our capacity to deliver on the Government’s plan to build 1.2 million homes,” Ms Martin said.

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Challenges today in recruiting future leaders

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

WHAT ARE the key issues for boards looking to bring in a new breed of leaders?

Anita Wingrove, the managing director of leading search and leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates, said there were several areas “that are challenging companies when recruiting future leaders”.

She said the two big areas were digital transformation and ESG (environmental, social, governance), putting more focus on sustainability.

Ms Wingrove said digital transformation made things “much more complex” for leaders and ESG meant that company leaders now needed to think more broadly. 

“Now, to be more successful, they really have to be turned into the broader context of community, the social agenda, and the sustainability agenda more broadly – and that’s requiring them to lead much more complex environments than they have had to previously,” Ms Wingrove told Talking Business.

Leadership challenges worlds apart

Ms Wingrove said family companies faced completely different issues in developing leaders, totally different from listed companies.

For leaders of family companies, she said, there were two issues.

The first is succession, and how to prepare younger family members for leadership roles. The second complexity is bringing in talent from the market to succeed founders. The outsiders are coming in fresh and are not part of the family and don’t have the context of the family, she said.

“In general with companies of that nature, there are a few challenges at hand,” Ms Wingrove said.

“One is – and we’ve often found in the work we’ve done, across Asia in particular – that the team composite is just as important as having best-of-breed people in each role.

“And so the best CFO (chief financial officer) working in a family business might be excellent because they’re a great CFO, but they work very well with the founder of that organisation. They become the ‘ying and the yang’ if you like, and there’s a huge reliance and trust.”

Ms Wingrove said COVID had challenged the leadership of companies and business all round.

“All of a sudden, leaders were leading their teams from their living rooms through Zoom and other means and, all of a sudden, with the personal issues bearing down on us. If we think back to 2020, it was as much about how this business is going to survive as it was about family members being in hospital and things like that,” she said.

“Here we had leaders not prepared to lead in that environment and, all of a sudden, they were really helping people both professionally and personally to get through some really trying settings. Of course, some did that very well and others found it extremely difficult, both personally and also in terms of the skills they didn’t have at that time.”

CEO tenure now a major issue

Ms Wingrove said the tenure of CEOs was now becoming a major issue for companies.

CEOs were now spending less time in the job. She said it used to average about 10 years. In Australia, this had now been reduced to six.

“The turnover is greater and therefore, CEOs are spending a lot of their tenure preparing the next generation” she said.

Ms Wingrove said there was also more pressure on boards to build talent internally.

This meant CEOs now had to develop talent internally rather than relying on the company to bring in a successor from outside.

“Those CEOs who have a good relationship with their chairs tend to fare better,” she said. 

www.russellreynolds.com

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.

https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business-25-interview-with-anita-wingrove-from-russe

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