Connecting Students with Employers

Providing value to our university student members, University Partners and Corporate partners is a mission that we take seriously within the University Events subgroup. Year in, year out, we have provided support to these three key stakeholders and this year was not any different.

The team was also very active during the AFBE Live conference and have spent the year building on new relationships and connections.

University and Corporate Events

Many thanks to our Corporate Partner - Burns & McDonnell for inviting 10 of our student members to their Birmingham office this year. The students learned about Substations, HV Protection & Control and EPC Delivery. In addition to networking with the Burns & McDonnell professionals, the students were treated to a live demonstration of Matterport, 3D laser scanning technology.

We were invited by the University of Sheffield’s BAME Engineers Society to their Project DiCE funded Careers in Engineering: Empowerment of Minority Students event. We had two of our members - Steve Fernandez and Titi Oliyide attend and talk about their experiences navigating their engineering careers. Both speakers and attendees had a wonderful time, and we look forward to speaking at future events organised by the Society.

Transition

Transition is a career workshop designed to equip students and recent graduates with the skills required to scale through the employment process at the most sought-after companies. This event includes a CV review session, a mock interview session and an assessment centre.

There were lots of success stories and testimonials from the Transition Careers events in 2021, with some of the attendees’ getting jobs with some of the companies that hosted the

Transition events in collaboration with AFBE-UK. We worked to build upon this and achieve better results in 2022.

Our in-person Transition events are back after the online events held in 2021 due to COVID-19.! Following a restructuring of the wider England and Scotland Transition team, we delivered two truly phenomenal events with Mott MacDonald and Balfour Beatty and with Mott MacDonald and WSP in the beautiful cities of Glasgow and Leeds respectively.

The careers events were very beneficial to the attendees that included students, young graduates and mid-career level professionals preparing for the world of work.

AFBE-UK Transition team partnered with Mott MacDonald and Balfour Beatty to host the Glasgow Transition Careers event on October 7th, 2022. On 15th October 2022, AFBEUK hosted another Transition event in Leeds, in partnership with Mott MacDonald.

Students in attendance learned from early career and seasoned professionals about their career journeys. They were given key interview and CV tips which will make them stand out during interviews. We have in turn had really great feedback from both our students and attendees. We’re kicking off next year with a bang by taking the Transition train to Manchester in collaboration with WSP and Mott MacDonald.

Focus groups

AFBE-UK delivered a Focus Group exercise at Subsea 7 on 2nd November 2022, which had the senior leadership team of Subsea 7 in attendance. The goal of the focus group was to give Subsea 7 an outsider’s view of their recruitment process and recommend practical ways to improve the process. The exercise was enlightening, engaging, and well received by the senior management of Subsea 7 in attendance. AFBEUK has continued to foster a great relationship with Subsea

7 and collaborating on several projects aimed at helping Subsea 7 on their diversity strategy of attraction, retainment and progression of a diverse workforce to drive organisational performance and commercial excellence.

Other Focus Group exercises are being planned for Q1and Q2 2023 with corporate members such as Worley, Harbour Energy, Baker Hughes, and a host of others.

We would like to thank everyone, corporate partners and AFBE-UK volunteers that volunteered in various capacities in rolling out. These events are instrumental to AFBE’s mission of supporting community and making real positive impact.

If Personal Development and Increasing Outreach is on your list of goals to achieve for 2023, why not join the Universities Event group? It’s a great way to achieve these goals as you will get to work with an amazing team planning great and impactful events. If you would like to give this a shot, then send an email including your CV to info@afbe.org.uk

“On a personal note, I have had the pleasure of leading the University Events team over the past three years. It has been a wonderful experience travelling around the UK and working with our Partners and Students. I have recently taken the decision to step down from the board and my role as the University Events team Lead. I will be handing over to the amazing Adele Samuels. Adele brings to the team her wealth of experience from leading teams across the UK and being involved in worldwide infrastructure projects. We are all very excited to see the next phase of the University Events team under her leadership.”

-Chi Felly-Njoku

Other upcoming Transition events are as follows:

• Transition Careers event in collaboration with Mott MacDonald in Aberdeen (February 2023).

• Transition Careers event in collaboration with Bechtel (Q2 2023).

• Transition Careers event in collaboration with Baker Hughes in Aberdeen (Date TBC).

• Transition Careers event in collaboration with Worley (Date in Q2 TBC)

Article by Chi Felly Njoku and Ibim Diri

Chi Felly-Njoku graduated with a First-Class Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Covenant University, Nigeria before moving to Aberdeen, Scotland where she obtained a Masters in Subsea Engineering from the University of Aberdeen. She currently works for Arup as an Electrical Engineer. She has over 5 years’ experience in the Water industry as an electrical designer of clean and wastewater assets.

She is a Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and joined AFBE in 2015 as a student. She has been the AFBE University Events team Lead since 2020 and fully aligns with and supports AFBE’s commitment to promoting diversity in the Engineering and Technology sector (with a focus on increasing the number of involvement of ethnic minority women).

Ibim is a highly skilled Geoscientist with over five years’ experience in Exploration and Reservoir Geophysics. In his most recent role, Ibim worked in a team of geoscientists responsible for exploration activities in Total’s deep water and onshore asset within the African region.

Ibim holds an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience Geophysics Major from IFP School in Paris. He is a strong advocate for team culture, vertical and horizontal communication as well as collaboration across functions.

Ibim is a trusted Geoscientist with strong leadership and strong passion to give back to the community, a lover of sports and an advocate for diversity and inclusion especially in the workplace”