At only 26, Kim Sedgwick, the Operations/Projects Manager – Systems for ARRB Group, is still in the early stages of her career. This makes her ideally placed to guide the evolution of the Young IPWEA group as its first National Chair. 

By Michael Mills

Why did you decide to embark on a career in public works engineering? 
There wasn’t a specific prompt for me to go into public works. I didn’t realise the career path existed when I was at university. A friend, who was working in the private sector, introduced me to the idea of working in the sector and I went from there. 

I really enjoy the variety that the job offers. I get to work with a lot of different people and clients, and on a great range of projects. I’m able to see the different challenges that the industry faces and how people are looking to deal with them.

When you started, how easy was it for you to learn from your colleagues’ experiences? 
I’ve been very fortunate to work for some very supportive companies where knowledge transfer is one of the main focus areas. All of my colleagues have been very supportive, as have the other people within the industry that we work with. You learn something from every client and colleague. If you don’t have a company that supports you as an up and coming young professional, then you probably won’t get the opportunities to grow. This is something Young IPWEA is trying to eliminate.

What would you do to make public works more attractive to young engineers? 
We need to start promoting the career to high school leavers and first-year university students. To my knowledge, you don’t hear about public works at all when you start university or when you are making career decisions with career counsellors. The industry needs to be better known as a career option – youngsters need to know there are alternatives to working for big companies or mines. Public works encompasses a lot more opportunities, which people probably don’t realise. 

What is the Young IPWEA program aiming to achieve? How can members benefit from it? 
Young IPWEA is aiming to make the career more attractive to young people and make networking within the industry more open. It’s fairly new, so we’re still growing. We’ve only just launched the national body. One of the main focuses of the group will be to promote the public works profession to university and high school students.

The group offers a great networking opportunity to members. We are setting up a mentoring program in WA that will hopefully go national. It will expose young professionals to more experienced peers who they might otherwise not come across at their workplace.

How well has the program been received so far? 
Fantastically. We had our first national meeting in Melbourne at the end of November 2012 with all the IPWEA State Division Presidents and Executive Managers together to get their support for the initiative. They were all very receptive to it, so that was great. The WA group has been the longest established and we’ve only had good feedback [Sedgwick has been the convenor of Young IPWEA WA since 2009]. All of the state groups are beginning to work together now and we are also starting to work with the other young engineering professional groups, such as Young AITPM and Young Engineers Australia. 

How have you benefited from your involvement with Young IPWEA? 
I have massively benefited from the group. I’ve grown a lot as a professional, and I have developed the confidence to talk to anyone about their career and experiences. The biggest positive for me is the networking – I’ve met a lot of really interesting and successful professionals. It’s been very inspiring.

This is the way forward for public works, because without it, the industry will continue to be affected by the skills shortage.

If you’re interested in getting involved with Young IPWEA, please contact Kim Sedgwick on kim.sedgwick@arrb.com.au

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