3. Youth Appeal

To increase the number of young Australians developing careers in engineering and technology.

Engaging with schools

• Engineers Australia's involvement with schools at a primary and secondary level continued to be a major focus of activities for Divisions across the country. A large investment in staff time, volunteer resources and financial resource saw the organization literally engage with tens of thousands of children and teachers at all levels.


• Highlights included the 2008 EngQuest program which saw a massive 1,200% increase over 2007 with more than 1,500 teachers from 1,200 schools across the country involved in this innovative, web-based program. The program for EngQuest 2009 was launched in March 2009, with five national sponsors.


• Most Divisions have rated very highly secondary-level programs such as the Science and Engineering Challenge, summer schools, career fairs and expos, and such as ...
  
  
  • GirlTalk - Canberra Division
  
  
  • student Workcover courses - Newcastle Division
  
  
  • the SMART program into remote indigenous Arnhem Land communities - Northern Division
  
  
  • Queensland Division delivered a keynote address at the State's Science and Maths Teachers conference
  
  
  • the launch of a teacher's award for excellence in teaching in engineering-related subjects - WA Division.
  
  

Promoting engineering on campus

• On campus support activities were in part funded by the Campus Coordinator project and supported by Divisions and the Young Engineers Australia special interest group.


• Awards and prizes for undergraduate students were very successful elements of the year's activities for a number of our learned society groups. 2008 marked the 21st Warman Design and Build Competition. 


• The College of Electrical Engineers again sponsored the Model Vehicle Solar Challenge.


• The National Committee on Space Engineering is a core sponsor of the recent Victorian Space Science Education Centre.


• ITEE College Board and the National Committee on Software Engineering sponsored a ‘Smart Minds' networking segment at the ASWEC conference, offering career advice opportunities and the benefits of student membership of engineers Australia. 


• Student membership again grew by 4.5% to 33,380.

Keeping our tertiary education accreditation system responsive to change

• Our Australian Engineering Accreditation Centre in Melbourne reported that, for calendar year 2008, 136 engineering education programs were considered by the Accreditation Board for accreditation as an outcome of 17 individual accreditation visits to Australian educational institutions operating both on and off-shore. 7 of these programs were in the Engineering Technologist category and 9 in the Engineering Officer category, with the remainder aimed at delivering professional engineer graduates.


• 49 practising professional engineers and engineering technologists served as volunteer accreditation team members during 2008.


• In 2009 a major project for the Centre, in partnership with the Australian Council of Engineering Deans under an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant, is to review the Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competency Standards. These Standards underpin our accreditation system and represent the level of preparation for entry to practice as a Professional Engineer, Engineering Technologist or Engineering Officer. This project has consulted widely with College Boards, industry practitioners, and Associate Deans of engineering, and has benchmarked international graduate profile exemplar statements.


• The project is expected to conclude with a proposed revision of the Competency Standards for Council consideration early in 2010.


• The Accreditation Centre is rapidly formalising its accreditation system for evaluation of engineering education programs at the AQF6 level. This includes competency based Advanced Diploma programs and curriculum based Advanced Diploma and Associate degree programs implemented by both universities and Registered Training Organisations (RTOs). The Centre is providing consulting advice to both the Manufacturing and Electro-Technology Skills Councils on Training Package competency unit descriptors, packaging rules and the development of guideline materials and resources for training program implementations by RTOs. Two national workshops have been held during 2009 for senior TAFE staff, preparatory to a series of pilot accreditation visits to TAFE institutions in various states during 2009-2010.


• The operating budget for our Engineering Accreditation Centre is jointly funded from internal sources and from the engineering schools represented under the Australian Council of Engineering Deans. This external support covered 40% of the higher education accreditation budget for 2008- 2009 and will increment to 50% for 2009-2010.

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