Cameron Russell Bourne is an engineering and technical specialist with a background in Energy, Oil & Gas and Heavy Marine industries. He is currently employed at Synergy, a large energy supplier in Western Australia as a Mechanical Technician.
His day-to-day responsibilities at Synergy see him presiding over a plethora of systems. He says:
“I perform a wide range of tasks including inspection; fault diagnosis, investigations, condition monitoring, reliability testing, balancing, commissioning, and providing analytic reporting services for plants & systems used in large thermal power-generation processes. These systems include boiler, turbine, auxiliary plants, pumps, high-grade steam, pressure equipment, mobile plants, and fire, raw water and reverse osmosis systems.”
Cameron enrolled in and graduated through the Advanced Diploma of Mechanical Engineering Technologies with the Engineering Institute of Technology. He was a runner-up for the Graduate of the Year 2018, as announced at EIT’s Australian graduation.
Not only does he assist in the Oil & Gas industry, but he is also dedicated to the Emergency Response industry, and is a firefighting and emergency operations specialist too. How did Cameron manage to juggle all of these industries and manage to study at the same time? He chalks it up to EIT’s online delivery. He says:
“The online delivery of this course via the webinars and web page correspondence was the only way possible for me to achieve this qualification without having to give up my country lifestyle and regional location — this education model suited me very well.”
But, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Cameron found that he had to break some old habits to get through the course successfully — going from never having studied online to studying entirely online was a new experience for him. However, something that motivated him throughout the course was the character and approachability of the lecturers.
“They have great background knowledge and in most cases are up to date with the latest technologies relating to the content of any particular module. They were always ready for further discussion post webinars and responded to any email queries within a reasonable time frame.”
Applying what’s been learned
Cameron has leveled up from engineering tradesman to a technician role in his workplace, since pursuing his qualifications with EIT. He has no doubts that the high level of success he was able to achieve in his workplace is because of his professional development. He said:
“In the role that I currently work in, I am fortunate enough to be able to use all of the skills that I have learned over the past 18 months and my development as a Mechanical Technician has gone from strength to strength.”
Now, he says, his time management skills are far better than they used to be. He says he is also more prepared for working with multidisciplinary teams in his workplace and feels more confident that he can get things done. He concludes:
“Having a deeper understanding of how and why things work, means I have developed a greater knowledge of how to manage their associated risks. I have found that my skill set as an emergency services officer has also been enhanced, which has been beneficial not only for my employer but also for the community in which I live.”