Due to skills shortages across regional areas, council has previously experienced difficulties attracting and retaining civil engineers with suitable qualifications and experience.

To overcome this difficulty, council implemented a successful cadet program, whereby recent high school graduates were recruited and trained inhouse.

The program included cadets obtaining qualifications relevant to the role via distance education, with council agreeing to fund a three-year Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree.

At the time, there were no universities nearby offering the relevant courses, making it difficult to ensure the education requirements were met while cadets studied via distance.

While council's initial cadet program was deemed a success, council has since gone on to partner with CSU after the engineering degree was introduced in 2016.

A key difference between the proposed CSU program and many engineering courses offered elsewhere was the focus on engineering industry practice for cadets during their studies.

A key difference between the proposed CSU program and many engineering courses offered elsewhere was the focus on engineering industry practice for cadets during their studies.

Bathurst Regional Council entered into a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to support the program in its initial stages, including taking a junior cadet in the first year, and an additional cadet each year for the next two years.

This had the necessary impact of halting any further intake of cadets into council's pre-existing inhouse cadet program.

Council took its first cadet in 2017 and, according to a recent report, they are still working with council.

"This cadet remained with council for the duration of his studies, has since completed his degree, and is now employed as a permanent staff member within Technical Services," the report said.

"Council has since hosted an additional seven cadets under this program. While some are still working for council while completing their degrees, others are now working for other councils, Transport for NSW, or for local engineering consultants."

Given the success of this program to date, and the additional benefit to council from the contributions of the current cadets, the partnership looks set to continue.

It is anticipated that ongoing involvement in this program would assist the engineering department to continue providing a high level of service to the community, and reduce the impact of skills shortages in the engineering sector.

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