www.engineeringnews.co.nz 11 Anne Marie Edmonds THE CHANGING FACE OF FRASER ENGINEERING The face of Fraser Engineering’s automotive engineering department is changing with two young women now working as production assistants at the Lower Hutt based company; part of a rapidly changing industry that is becoming more high tech and facing significant skills shortage. Good pay and challenging jobs with tons of variety are drawing women into roles that have been traditionally undertaken by men. And it’s a change that is being welcomed by Fraser Engineering ceo Martin Simpson and production manager Phil Green as they want to attract people to work for their expanding company. “We’ve got a big skills shortage to address and we can offer people great opportunities and fantastic prospects in jobs that are full of variety plus each day is different,” says Mr Green. “No one here is stuck doing the same job. We’re producing one fire engine a week and we’ve got plans to increase that output significantly. We are probably the biggest manufacturer in Australasia now. Part of the solution to addressing skills shortages is to encourage more women to work for us. “There’s a lot of potential for women in this industry to learn and go a long way. Frasers is a good company to work for and you get to do a lot more than other places. We build prototype and production fire engines so the work is very varied,” says Mr Green. “Our female production assistants are as capable as any guy. Women fit in well on our work-site. They just need the confidence to go for it and they’ll find being an automotive engineer is a great career.” Two women recently started work at Fraser Engineering as production assistants. They are Anne Marie Edmonds and Jennifer Rogers – both having studied automotive engineering at WelTec. “Not many girls can say hey I built a fire engine today. It’s pretty cool,” says Ms Rogers. Jennifer lives in Stokes Valley and went to Taita College for her final years at high school before going straight to WelTec to study level 4 Certificate in Automotive Technology specialising in electrical, aiming to finish this year. Ann Marie Edmonds, a mum of three who completed an automotive qualification at WelTec, has been working at Frasers since April. “I wanted to show my kids a different path. I moved to Wellington from Auckland, studied at WelTec and saw the job advertised at Frasers and thought, well that’s good money, I’ll go for it,” says Ms Edmonds. “No day is the same here. One day I’ll be working on an actual fire truck doing cabling, the next day I make up boxes for wiring pumps, then I’ll be mounting pump panels and wiring pumps. Mounting beacons and aerials on the roof of fire trucks is one job I really like,” she says. “Women can do this job just as good as men, sometimes better. Young women can get stuck on hairdressing or similar jobs. Automotive engineering is a good option. It’s something different and it opens up a lot of opportunities for women,” she adds. “This is my first proper job. I like the work and I love getting paid! I sometimes overhear my kids telling their friends – My Mum builds fire engines. Their friends are seriously impressed and my kids think it’s really cool – they’re proud of me.” EN Jennifer Rogers and Anne Marie Edmonds Not a close shave for Milmeq, or was it? It would be remiss of Engineering News to not highlight a good dead done well, and the first chance we could here they are – the men of Milmeq and their wonderful mos! Milmeq took part in Movember late last year as part of a company fundraiser for the Movember Foundation. The engineering design and manufacturing company challenged 40 male staff members across its Auckland and Dunedin offices to grow their most creative moustache in support of creating awareness of men’s health and wellness issues. Milmeq ceo Mike Lightfoot led the charge and set the team a target of raising $3,000. If this was reached he would allow staff to shave off his hair as well as his moustache at the end of the month. Men’s health awareness is particularly important to Mr Lightfoot who 12 years ago sought medical assistance for stomach cancer. Mike smashed it, finishing 4th in New Zealand for the individual category and raising $5102. The Milmeq men took to the challenge and as a team between their Auckland and Dunedin offices they raised nearly $8,000, finishing 8th in their category. The Milmeq men finished 8th in the country Milmeq ceo, Mike Lightfoot is a man of honour in keeping his word to staff about shaving his head… … a man of honour, but soon little hair (Ed’s note: top mo tho!) N E W S
EN feb16-HR-nocrops
To see the actual publication please follow the link above