This week I was invited to help out at the “Pit to Port” event for school students, run by Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA). There were about 60 Gladstone students from the local High schools learning about supply chain logistics with help from local industry representatives. The day started with a focus on safety. I was very impressed by students’ knowledge around risk of injury and the measures needed to reduce these risks. A lot of the students had family members working in local industry and it is good to know that family members are passing on these skills at home. There were two other group activities for the day.

The first one was a mining scenario where each team was given a budget, time frame, equipment options and production targets and had to come up with a plan to achieve a production goal. The students did great – coming up with and some “outside the box” thinking to achieve the targets. The second activity involved loading product onto ships and developing a schedule to meet the loading requirements and timeframes. The teams then presented their findings to the whole group. Lots of very confident and enthusiastic young people. It got me reflecting about how lucky we are to work in jobs which constantly give us the opportunity to learn and apply skills to meet interesting challenges. We also have the satisfaction of knowing that we are helping to make the minerals and energy that people across the world need to enjoy a good quality of life. I think the young people who attended the session went away with a lot to think about and many took away a newfound enthusiasm about their potential careers.