Scholarships Boost Career Prospects for Students

Three young students are the winners of highly sought after scholarships with Belmont-based construction firm Pindan to help propel their careers in the building industry.

Selected from Curtin university and TAFE students who applied this year, the awards offer the winners a stint of paid work experience at Pindan, as well as $5,000 to go towards their study expenses.

This year’s Pindan Scholarship Program recipients are:

Building and Construction Management Scholarship: Luca Calligaro (21), of Waterford, who is studying his Diploma of Building Studies at the Central Institute of Technology.

Drafting and Design Scholarship: Mitchell Bailey (20), of Kewdale, who is studying his Certificate IV in Residential Drafting at the Central Institute of Technology.

John Skinner Award: Bradley Stringer (32), of Shenton Park, who is completing his Bachelor of Construction Management and Economics at Curtin University in Bentley.

Pindan’s director of business development Scott Davison congratulated the students and described the scholarship program as a win-win initiative.

“The company gets to help budding property and construction workers at a time when they need it most, while also doing our bit to guarantee WA has a well-skilled, high quality building industry,” he said.

“The state continually struggles to keep up with the demand for skilled workers due to a booming resource sector and the sector is again growing strongly, so scholarships like this help to make a difference in attracting young people into building and construction.”

Currently in the second year of his study, Luca Calligaro, decided to follow his interest in building design when the global financial crisis hit.

“While working as a general labourer, I did some work for a louver installation company and a lot of the building sites were multi-storey, which piqued my interest in the industry and got me thinking about this course, but I didn’t actually enroll until work started drying up during the GFC,” he said.

“If I ended up working for Pindan after the scholarship program that would be a major bonus because I know it’s a company that gives you plenty of room for growth.”

Mitchell Bailey, who grew up in Kojonup and moved to Perth two years ago for his studies – which he’s just a year off finishing – said the scholarship would ease the cost of putting himself through tertiary education.

“After high school, I applied to study architecture at university, but I soon realised I wasn’t in a position to support myself for the five years the course would take to finish, so I had to take another tack to reaching my goals,” he said.

A mature-age student, Mr Stringer said the John Skinner Award – named in honour of a long-standing Pindan team member who lost his battle with cancer – would help him tackle the challenges of finishing a degree at the same time as working.

“I’ve been working as a contract administrator at Pindan for nearly two years now and learned heaps through working on key projects like Stockland’s Islands apartment development in South Beach and the Building the Education school upgrade program,” he said.

“This scholarship means I can afford to keep studying while gaining on-the-job industry training and experience – the company really puts its money where its mouth is in supporting the professional development of staff, so getting a scholarship on top of that is like icing on the cake.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Jo Di Dio on (08) 9463 7281 or jo.didio@pindan.com.au