Engineering good management

ENGINEERS who possess management as well as technical expertise will be in hot demand with $20 billion worth of infrastructure planned in the 2008/09 Federal Budget, according to the Queensland University of Technology.

In a bid to address future industry demands, QUT offers comprehensive postgraduate education for engineers with six master degrees by coursework programs designed to deliver intensive up-to-the-minute skills.

QUT Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering Associate Professor Jay Yang says the construction and engineering industries are so buoyant, that graduates in the field will move into management roles more quickly than their counterparts 10 years ago.

"In addition to the Federal Government’s infrastructure plans, Queensland alone has an $82 billion investment in resource and infrastructure slated for the next 20 years," says Yang.

"Extensive consultation with industry bodies revealed they were looking for graduates with comprehensive abilities.

"Employers want to take on board engineers with technical skills and experience who can also go straight out and market, communicate and sell the ideas to stakeholders."

Yang says QUT has partnered with global engineering and project management services provider Ausenco to form Ausenco Project Academy.

Ausenco CEO Zimi Meka says that by bringing together Ausenco’s commercial expertise and QUT’s knowledge base, the academy will be hands-on, highly relevant and a benchmark for industry.

"We saw synergies in partnering with QUT as a leading university to develop an academy that promoted the professional development of our people and fostered world-class project management skills," says Meka.

The master courses cover the disciplines of project management, infrastructure, engineering management, engineering systems, urban and regional planning, and urban design.

A graduate certificate course is also available as a pathway to a master degree.