NOJA Power Start Search for next power engineering cadet

Electrical switchgear engineers NOJA Power today announces the commencement of the search for its second engineering cadet. The company’s engineering cadetship is designed to develop undergraduates’ practical skills in order to accelerate their effectiveness once they enter industry. The scheme provides the successful candidate with an engineering cadet wage for the four-year duration of their course, and after graduation, NOJA Power will employ the successful applicant as an engineer for three years - providing a fast start to his or her career with professional experience.

NOJA Power’s engineering cadetship is in part a response to a global shortage of skilled workers. The successful candidate from this year’s search will join the first engineering cadet, Norton Kelly-Boxall, a student at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Kelly-Boxall is studying for a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng.) degree while adhering to a structured program of practical training in the design, assembly and test of NOJA Power’s OSM Series Automatic Circuit Reclosers (ACRs) and associated products.

“I encourage school leavers who are going to university to study engineering to apply for the scheme,” says Jay Manne, Engineering Director at NOJA Power. “It’s one of all-too-few opportunities of this type. One key aspect we’ll be looking for in candidates, apart from a keen interest in engineering, is hands-on experience making or taking apart mechanical devices.

“Our plan is to continue the scheme pioneered by Norton Kelly-Boxall whereby the successful candidate will spend their first year in production engineering––learning how our products are assembled and tested––while Norton himself moves into the service department to get to grips with the functionality of our protection devices,” says Manne. “Such a scheme enables the cadets to gain experience in a commercial engineering company, learn specifically about NOJA Power’s products and contribute meaningfully towards the company’s business.

“Later, when the cadets are further along with their studies, we will allocate them to departments such as R&D which will begin to exercise their new-found engineering knowledge.”

“The practical experience Norton has already gained is something his fellow university students won’t get until at least years three years into their academic studies,” says Simon Trevor, Production Engineering Manager at NOJA Power and Kelly-Boxall’s mentor for the first year of his cadetship. “And he’s playing a key part in the success of real commercial projects.”

In addition to engineering cadetships, NOJA Power offers electrical apprenticeships and sponsors a PhD scholarship at the University of Queensland each year as part of the company’s R&D program.