The challenge was obvious: how does an industry attract young, skilled workers in a climate of skills shortages? The answer was clear – be different!

The young people of today – particularly young engineers – have the world at their feet, with jobs available in many and varied, as well as challenging and interesting industries. All industries are crying out for skilled workers and older workers are being asked to stay on longer.

The young people of today are also demanding! Not only do they also want interesting, well-paid jobs, they want to work in an enjoyable environment.

The Australian Pipeline Industry Association (APIA) has taken a major step towards addressing these needs by helping to ensure that young people in the gas transmission industry seek career paths within the industry instead of leaving it in search of (job satisfaction or to seek) an alternative career path.

The idea for the Young Pipeliners Forum (YPF) began as a discussion about the future of the industry and the need to attract younger people. That discussion led to a day-and-a-half seminar, held in May 2006, for young people in the pipeline industry – the inaugural YPF.

The 2006 forum saw approximately 90 attendees, all sponsored by their employers, who made the most of the opportunity to meet other young people in the industry and learn about its depth and breadth. After speaking with the younger people in attendance, APIA found that they were hesitant about attending functions and did not have sufficient information about opportunities within the industry. The YPF was born!

YPF - a national group

That 2006 seminar led to what has become a movement within the industry. The YPF is a growing group of APIA members under 35 years of age who meet regularly, take tours of members’ facilities and attend many APIA functions. As of July 2008, 367 people were on the YPF circulation lists.

There is a national YPF committee that helps to keep matters in line, meeting every two to three months, and keeping minutes of their discussions to help ensure follow-up. As well as a small group of stalwarts, the national YPF committee also has a representative from each State. The state-based YPF groups operate quite independently and each has developed its own personality over the past two years. Most of these groups have their own organising committee, which is supported by the APIA secretariat when organising tours of members’ facilities.

Touring member facilities

The first major YPF tour of member facilities was a two-day visit to Wollongong in April 2007, with visits to OneSteel, Orrcon, APC Socotherm, Bredero Shaw and BlueScope Steel, where the participants saw steel making, pipe making and pipe coating techniques, with an experienced engineer on hand to explain all processes. On the evening of the first day participants were taken up to Sydney for an APIA dinner function where they heard a particularly interesting address by a newly arrived Brazilian presenter who had worked on the Bolivia to Brazil pipeline. He provided a very interesting description of the challenges of not only crossing political borders and extreme terrain, but also the difficulty of having the military arrive to take over the first half of the pipeline! The dinner was also an excellent opportunity for the younger industry members to mix with older members and for everyone to share their experiences. In fact, many of the experienced members were interested in joining the YPF tour of the Wollongong facilities but, alas, not enough room.

Other tours organised for young pipeliners have included hot tapping, pipe repairing, production and coating of pipes and pigging, including meeting an ‘intelligent’ PIG in Western Australia. Young pipeliners have visited companies including Tyco, Furmanite, APA Group and ROSEN Australia. In Queensland, the YPF group visited the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project’s Western Pipeline site and saw large diameter pipe being laid, the Bremer River crossing (and large vertical shafts) and many road crossings. A small tour was also recently conducted in New South Wales to view hot-tapping and pipe-making.

Growing with a growing industry

After the first day-long seminar in 2006, the YPF group insisted on another one. But this time it had to be different. Many of the younger members had by now become very active in the industry, so the introductory session was not needed by all. After much debate, and a lot of determined action by the YPF group, the seminar was linked to the usual APIA Brisbane seminar, held in May this year. The morning session was streamed. There was an introductory session for the new members of the YPF group, while the senior and experienced members attended a session on innovation and technology. In the afternoon the two groups joined for an interesting exchange of ideas about dealing with the challenges of the new generation, information exchange and leadership into the future.

The experienced members of the industry are very enthusiastic about the initiative, with APIA’s research committee recently inviting a group of younger members to attend their day-long seminar in Canberra. The APIA board also agreed to the Association providing six scholarships to younger members to attend the 2007 Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) in Canberra – a week-long international forum that was held in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. APIA has decided to provide scholarships for the next JTM to be held in Milan, Italy in 2009.

APIA also promotes the Australian Gas Industry Trust opportunities through the YPF information network, encouraging young people to attend Gas Speak, improve communication and presentation skills, and participate in the AGIT international tours for young gas industry professionals.

In fact, there has been interest in APIA membership from non-pipeline, non-gas industry companies, purely because of the activities of the YPF.

Clearly, the gas transmission industry is meeting the challenge of keeping the skilled workers that it has already and, in the process is developing a structure that will entice new entrants to the industry.

Cheryl Cartwright is Chief Executive of the Australia Pipeline Industry Association.