As an opportunity to provide engineering students from universities across Victoria with project management and teamwork/leadership experience while being involved with the IET, the Young Professionals Section (YPS) Leadership Program kicked off on Saturday 31 August at the State Library in Melbourne.



Interest was overwhelming for the program, but only the top sixteen applicants made it through in the end.

Over the next six to eight months, participants will be paired with a mentor from the YPS committee and develop their soft skills, whilst helping organise and run events for the YPS in Victoria.  They will learn the skills necessary to successfully manage projects and how to apply them in their studies and future careers.



There is also an Event Proposal competition with a $500 prize on offer to the pair of participants that produce the most outstanding Event Proposal document for a project that the YPS can deliver to benefit students and Young Professionals.

The proposals will be judged and the winner announced towards the end of the Leadership Program.

The event started with a presentation about the IET – what we are and what we do. The students participating in the program were split into mentor groups and introduced to the YPS committee members.  As an ice-breaker, every person within each of the mentor groups shared their background, motivation and university/industry experience, as well as their expectations of the Leadership Program.  Many students highlighted their excitement about the opportunity to meet new people, form contacts within the engineering industry and develop new skills to enhance their career.

 

With each mentor overseeing a key aspect of the upcoming Present Around The World Victorian Final, the mentor groups began brainstorming activities where they identified and started tackling the different steps needed to successfully organise the event.  Participants were introduced to TeamworkPM, an online project management tool similar to those used in industry, as a discussion platform to keep updated about the progress of each task.



The YPS Leadership Program runs through until mid-2014.