Connecting with Undergraduate Students and Your Future Workforce: Wrapping Up Industry Connect
- Emily Marschke
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Over the past few months, the API team has spent plenty of time in airports, on planes and travelling across the country delivering the new API Power Up Industry Connect series. With the final two events now completed in Western Australia and South Australia, we have officially wrapped up the national tour and what a busy, rewarding few months it has been.
From Sydney to Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, one thing became clear at every event: students are eager to connect, curious about their futures, and wanting honest conversations about what comes next.
Industry Connect was designed to bring undergraduate students together with API member organisations through Summer Placement interviews, industry panels and networking. While the formal activities were important, many of the most valuable moments happened during the conversations between sessions, over lunch, or during networking where students asked the questions that really matter.
Questions like:
“How do I know what area of the industry is right for me?”
“Should I move around during my graduate program?”
“How do I know if I’m making the right career decisions?”
The consistent advice from industry professionals across every state was simple: take the opportunities.
Take opportunities to experience different parts of the business. Rotate where possible. Learn how different teams operate. Say yes to projects outside your comfort zone. The earlier in your career that you build broad exposure, the better equipped you become to understand where your interests and strengths truly lie.
Another topic that came up repeatedly was Artificial Intelligence and its growing role in engineering.
The advice from experienced professionals was clear: embrace AI for the simple tasks, but engage deeply with the harder ones.
AI can help improve efficiency, automate repetitive work and accelerate learning. But engineers still need judgement. Students were reminded that the person with forty years of experience sitting next to you today will not always be there to question whether the answer is right.
You need to develop the skills to question it yourself. Most importantly, students were encouraged to keep asking questions. The power sector remains a relationship-driven industry where curiosity, communication and continuous learning matter just as much as technical capability. As we now move into the next stage of supporting confirmed Summer Placements for 2026/27, we are excited to see these conversations continue and watch the next generation of engineers begin building their careers. Because sometimes the most important connection is simply starting the conversation.
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