The Queensland Young Pipeliners Forum (YPF) had the honour of welcoming APIA President Peter Cox, Hugh Luckhurst-Smith from Fyfe and Ian Clark from McConnell Dowell as mentors for the networking and mentoring event.

This event included a panel representing all generations – from Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y – which encouraged an interactive and free-flowing discussion about mentoring and networking between the panel and participants.

The event generated passionate interaction between participants and responsive outcomes to develop mentoring and networking throughout the YPF. Some of the questions discussed by the group included:

  • From what areas do mentors come and how/why are they chosen?
  • What is mentoring for Pipeliners and why is it needed?
  • What can APIA/YPF do to develop the mentoring/networking relationships and opportunities to bridge the generation gap?
  • What can companies within the pipeline industry do to develop mentoring/networking relationships and opportunities to bridge the generation gap?

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Some of the participants’ responses covering what mentoring means to them included:

  • Networking develops mentoring;
  • A good mentor will take me under their wings; and,
  • Mentoring works both ways.

Through extensive participant interaction the event produced some very interesting information and statistics for the industry. The most encouraging point was that 88 per cent of attendants were from Generation Y – our new leaders of today and future managers. Out of the participants present, 60 per cent of their organisations had mentoring or graduate programs – 30 per cent of which were rated as ‘excellent’, 50 per cent as ‘average’ and 20 per cent as ‘poor’.

Much more information and data was recorded and analysed during the event, and was deemed so useful that it was decided to prepare a paper that can provide guidance and make recommendations for mentoring and networking for the pipeline industry.

More events such as this may assist in bridging the gap and support the improvement of the industry knowledge base and knowledge share between mentors and their protégés.