Tracey Dennis – Chief Executive
Engineering Aid Australia

First Nations people were the first engineers on this land and our children are continuing with that tradition.

They’re out the back of their traditional country, pulling apart old cars and paddock bashers, and putting them back together and making them work. What they don’t realise is that they’re actually on their way to becoming engineers.

At Engineering Aid Australia our job is to nurture this enthusiasm and to help more of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth come through school and enter into higher education to study engineering and technology.

I am honoured and excited to be the first full-time CEO of Engineering Aid Australia (EAA). My job is to build up a big pipeline of young indigenous engineers and technology
specialists moving into the workforce in corporate Australia.

We will continue with our Indigenous Australian Engineering Program to show high school students what engineering is all about and discover how it can help communities. And we will continue with providing scholarships, mentors and work placement to students wishing to study engineering or related courses at university.

But we will also pivot to put more emphasis on making our work and programs better known and understood by the broader engineering community in Australia.

As we implement our new strategic plan, I will build on each of the six priority areas identified in the strategy.

In particular, I want to make sure that we further develop our relationship with our alumni and that they become part of our collaboration, because they’ve already lived this experience. They’re the future of promoting this to our up-and-coming students.

I’m hoping that as part of our Future Directions Plan 2022-2025 our alumni working group can help develop some of those strategies and work with education providers and governments, particularly in closing the gap around supporting our students through school.

Another priority is to deepen the relationship with those partners and stakeholders who have already done so much and to connect with new partners and stakeholders. These
respected industry professions have huge networks and can help promote and brand EAA inside the profession.

We need to bring our people, our heritage and our way of life into the business of engineering. We’re building on our country every day and our children should be a part of those decisions on how and why we’re building and be part of those companies making the decisions.