Our students recently had the opportunity to hear from a panel of construction professionals who shared valuable career insights.

The discussion went beyond technical skills to emphasise key aspects of professional growth, such as listening carefully, asking questions, and valuing each person’s unique journey.

The OPAIC Employability Centre hosted Karyn Beattie, Andrew Helm, Nanetta Rathnakumar, Anoop Babu, and Sam Gunther from Icon at the campus at lunchtime yesterday.

Icon is a fully diversified commercial builders and construction services provider, offering complex construction capability across all sectors in Australia and New Zealand.

The panel talked about the construction industry today, construction tools and software, and the hard and soft skills that students will need for various roles in the construction industry.

They covered the importance of listening to people and asking questions to help develop your knowledge base.

The team said our students will come across many colleagues who are very skilled at what they do, regardless of whether those colleagues have completed tertiary study. Students shouldn’t assume they know more than anybody else and should remember that everyone’s journey is unique.

The panel added that students would learn a lot and get a new perspective from spending time out on construction sites.

They also advised students to connect with people in the industry to help get an idea of the sort of work they’d like to do.

At the end of the session, students were invited to ask questions of the panel as well as share what they’d learned from the event.

Thank you to the Icon team for taking the time out of their day to share their expertise with our learners.