Engineering ways to bring expertise home

It's a way to try and make people think about engineering.Adrian Stockill, Transfield Worley division manager
An engineering scholarship awarded to local teen Thomas Addis aims to bring expertise back to the Bay in the future.
Thomas, 18, was awarded the $4500 scholarship by Transfield Worley to assist with his costs while studying for an engineering degree at the University of Canterbury.
Transfield Worley southern regional manager Mike Finlayson said the award was the second to be given by the firm, and even if recipients did not end up working for them, they would end up benefiting Hawke's Bay.
"We don't tie them to Transfield Worley," he said.
"At the end of their studies they may go away and do the OE thing, but when they come back and settle down, they may have careers either with us, or work with us as a client or contractor and the region will benefit from their education and expertise that we helped provide."
Thomas, from Elsthorpe, Central Hawke's Bay, attended Lindisfarne College, Hastings, and applied for the scheme through the school. He said the scholarship was appealing as it offered mentoring throughout his degree.
"If I have a question about a paper I should take, or I'm not sure about something, I can just email the mentor and ask."
Thomas said he was passionate about engineering.
"There's a lot of opportunity for it in Hawke's Bay, you see it everywhere as the process that helps make the final product - whether it's the grapes to wine, or farming and other fruit processing," he said.
Transfield Worley Hawke's Bay division manager Adrian Stockill said the firm hoped to eventually have four students - one at each level of an engineering degree - with a scholarship at all times.
"Lots of people choose to go to university to be a doctor or a lawyer, so it's a way to try and make people think about engineering."
The company also gave out scholarships in other provincial regions, and Wanganui Collegiate graduate Jock Nowell-Usticke, 18, was the runner-up.