For former cardiac theatre nurse Moira Vice a career change from health to engineering made perfect sense.
A graduate of Challenger Institute of Technology’s Women in Engineering training program, Moira described the two careers as requiring a very similar mindset and application of logic.
“Whether it is the human heart or engineering projects, ultimately you are working with pipes, pressure, coordinated systems and different components,” Vice said.
Delivered in partnership with Chevron Australia, the Women in Engineering program is providing women with the skills to make a successful transition into an engineering career in the energy sector.
The course, delivered at Challenger Institute’s world-class Australian Centre for Energy and Process Training (ACEPT), is specifically designed to provide women with a supportive, applied learning environment that includes work placement and access to female role models.
Challenger CEO Liz Harris said the program was helping to encourage more women into the resources sector and had been highly successful in giving women the opportunity to embark on exciting careers.
Vice, who has become one of the first women to undertake a process operator traineeship with Chevron, said she had always been passionate about the energy sector because her family worked in the same industry.
“I was delighted my course application was successful and after completing the program I undertook a Diploma in Civil and Structural Engineering and Certificate II in Process Plant Operations, which Chevron sponsored,” she said.
“I now look forward to being part of my family’s conversations about working on site.”
The Women in Engineering partnership between Challenger Institute and Chevron recently won the 2013 Outstanding Company Initiative Award presented by the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA.
The course provides valuable foundation skills for gaining employment in Western Australia’s expanding oil and gas industry, or a pathway to higher level engineering qualifications.
Upon completion of the certificate III, participants may progress into a diploma and advanced diploma. Students who graduate with an advanced diploma are granted one-year advanced standing in a related Curtin University degree.