Geelong Future Leaders of Industry and Girls Leading Advanced Manufacturing Programs launched last Wednesday with 46 Year 9 & 10 students from schools around the region taking part.
The students were treated to tours of leading R&D facilities at Deakin University including the Institute of Frontier Materials (IFM) and the Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (IISRI), as well as the state of the art engineering learnings spaces at the Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET), where they began their introductions to the range of exciting and rewarding careers and pathways in advanced manufacturing, engineering and STEM trades.
“I enjoyed learning about the role of environmental engineers, as this is an area I am particularly interested in”
“The IISRI universal motion simulator was really cool”
“I learnt what CNC machines & electron microscopes do”
“I learnt about all the different options and branches of engineering”
A major aspect of the six-month long immersion programs are tours of industry sites, and we thank Lyondell Basell for once again providing the programs with PPE to equip the students for these visits.
Students also participated in a Communication and Job Readiness workshop to hone their skills as future workplace leaders.
The day concluded with families and teachers joining students in tours of CADET, followed by an official launch presentation. David Peart, CEO of Geelong Manufacturing Council provided an overview of the manufacturing landscape in Geelong. Dr Alessandra Sutti, Senior Reserach Fellow at IFM gave an engaging presentation about her journey in STEM and the exciting work she is doing. The group were then presented with their PPE.
