Developing a sustainable workforce – our next generations

As a UGL Ambassador, engineer and mother of three Michelle Ho, UGL Commissioning Coordination Manager is the perfect candidate to mentor up-and-coming engineers. Her enthusiasm and excitement for contributing to the next generation is palpable. Engineering roles for the Sydney Metro projects keep her occupied, but over this past year she has volunteered her personal time in not one but two mentoring programs.

A mentoring opportunity at Cherrybrook Technology High School in New South Wales became available while Michelle was working on the Sydney Metro Northwest project. Michelle had set herself a goal for the year to give back to the community, jumping at the chance to volunteer. As the only female in her engineering bachelor’s degree while at Monash University, she didn’t have anything like this available to her at the time. Michelle realised this would be her chance to give back to the next generation, and pass along her knowledge and experience.

The program requires regularly meeting with two Year 11 students over the duration of about six months, going through materials prepared by the school. A highlight of this mentoring program was the mentor shadowing day when the mentees were given the opportunity to visit UGL’s Pymble and Milperra offices. Led by Alistair Morrison, UGL Head of Engineering – Rail Systems, another UGL mentor in the program, the students had a taste of a full work day. Experiencing the big machinery at Milperra while wearing personal protective equipment was a highlight for the students.

CIMIC also provided Michelle with the opportunity to participate in the Women in Engineering Society Industry Mentoring Program at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where she extended the mentoring experience to a wider group of students.

This program was designed with activities for mentors and mentees to engage with at checkpoints over the duration of around five months. Michelle has established not only a mentor-mentee relationship but also friendships with those she has met in this program. Although the program has concluded for this year, she continues to stay in touch with them and is keen to see them explore work experience opportunities with UGL.

Michelle believes that the mentoring programs were not only a positive learning experience for the mentees, but also herself. It can be a daunting experience for a young person to show up and talk to an industry professional. Michelle has seen how the students have developed through the program, in areas such as their organisational skills, enthusiasm to learn, and their confidence levels. These have been great moments that Michelle has been able to reflect on.

Michelle is looking forward to more mentoring opportunities next year, and looks forward to promoting UGL as a great place to work. Michelle encourages others at UGL to take the opportunity and become a mentor.

Her advice to someone considering mentoring or contributing to the community:

Michelle is an alumna of the UGL Xplore Emerging Female Leaders Program. She started with UGL 12 years ago and is proud to see the organisation evolve in the last few years, with the promotion of both gender and cultural diversity.