QENOS EXTENDS A WARM WELCOME TO STUDENTS
Qenos is always keen to provide an opportunity for students to get an insight into the chemical industry. We are particularly keen to support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) and GEMS (Girls in Engineering Maths and Science) - to showcase the best of Australian manufacturing to a potential future generation of female scientists and engineers.
In April, the Botany operations team hosted a recent visit by 31 students from Sydney’s Ascham Girls School.
Qenos Environment Advisor & BIP Operations Manager Richard Benson co-developed a program with the school for a “depth study” day by the Year 12 students as part of their Higher School Certificate chemistry studies which included a bus tour of the Botany Industrial Park and a visit to the Alkatuff Control Room.
The day was enthusiastically lead by an exceptional group of Qenos women including Cathy Judge (Olefines Cold End Team Leader), Alice To (Olefines Process Engineer), Anna Hassn (Polythene Process Engineer), Lauren Sibigtroth (BIP Environment Advisor) and Danielle Giampaoli (Olefines Systems Administrator).
The students were very engaged, showing a lot of interest in the manufacturing processes, the history of the Botany site and possible environmental impacts.
At the Altona facilities in early May, another group of girls also visited Qenos who were participating in the two day Ecolinc GEMS 2019 Conference to explore career pathways in STEM.
A group of 120 students from twelve schools in Melbourne’s Western suburbs participated. An outstanding array of female role models, combined with industry visits made this an engaging, and perhaps, career changing experience for the students.
The girls witnessed the complex manufacturing processes necessary to produce polyethylene and then undertook a comprehensive tour of the Technical Centre. Laboratory and technical staff were on hand to demonstrate the various moulding machines as used by many Qenos customers. Seeing actual demonstrations gave the students a much greater understanding of the numerous everyday end products produced with Qenos polyethylene.
Kathryn McDonald (Olefins Business Improvement Team Leader), Tracey Boseley (Feedstock & Energy Category Manager) and Lauren Joshi (Product Develoment Technologist) gave some candid insights into their various career journeys from their high school days to university and now their current roles at Qenos.
Hopefully, the students won’t forget their visit to Qenos and will one day go on to experience exciting and rewarding careers in the chemical industry.
