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YPF Chair’s Message
I’m extremely proud to report back to you that the FIDIC YPF activities at the 2011 FIDIC
Conference in Davos, Switzerland in October were a huge success! It was a fun filledprogram kicked off Sunday night with a YPF “Meet and Greet”. The Open Forum was a
HUGE success and the speakers were bombarded for more details by delegates after theforum. Tuesday evening YPs were taken on a tour of the Davos Avalanche Institute, whichgave YPs a new respect for the power of nature. For more details, enjoy the articles on theabove events and a personal account of the FIDIC Young Management Training Programby Melanie Kemp-Hofmeyr in this edition.

Chairperson’s
message

For the first time in FIDIC history, FIDIC has included the promotion of Young Professionals
as part of the formal FIDIC strategy. As part of this, Chris Newcomb, one of the newest
members of the FIDIC Executive Committee has been appointed as direct liaison to the
FIDIC Young Professional Steering Committee.
Thanks to the FIDIC Executive Committee for awarding us the platform and opportunity to
showcase the Young Professionals, and in particular, FIDIC Managing Director Enrico Vink
for all his help and support throughout the year.
We have some great plans for the year ahead which include:

Michele Kruger
South Africa- formalising the results from our 2011 survey on YP Development,- updating our Business Plan,- developing an interactive Blog on our website,- helping more Young Professional Forums launch around the world, particularly in
Africa and South America,- and bringing you an even better YP experience at this year’s FIDIC Conference inSeoul, Korea this September.
As before, we will also be bringing you news from around the world in our quarterly newsletter.
So if you have any news from your country, be it from your local YPF or an individual who
is making your country proud in the Engineering field, contact Selena Wilson with all thedetails at fidicypforum@gmail.com. Don’t forget to take photos at your YPF events; we wantto publish those too!
Enjoy the newsletter!
Michele Kruger
FIDIC Young Professionals Forum Chairperson

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What do YPs want in a company? The result of FIDIC’s YPF survey!
We are now into the third Millennium, when attracting and keeping talented staff is widely
regarded as the most important issue in business, particularly in our industry of Consulting
Engineering. In this century, companies have to hunt harder for talent more so than otherbusiness factors, and competition between companies to attract talent has risen. On a quest
for understanding how companies can attract strong employees, help their YPs develop
their skills, and keep their valuable human resources, the FIDIC YPF Steering Committee
initiated a global survey among FIDIC YPs and their managers to investigate the subject.
The research was collected using four methods:
1. Preparing two questionnaires (for both YPs and Seniors),
2. Defining a statistical population,
3. Setting a group interview that selected from the statistical population,
4. Setting several individual interviews of some selected people from the statistic
population.
The team members included:
1. Michele Kruger, YPFSC Chair from SA,
2. Selena Wilson, YPFSC Vice Chair from Canada,
3. Warren Bradley, YPFSC member from UK,
4. Nader Shokoufi, YPFSC Past Chair from Iran,
5. Manoochehr Azizi, YPFSC member from Iran, and
6. A team of professional academic researchers on sociology from Iran.

Manoochehr Azizi
YPFSC
Iran

A worldwide on-line survey was sent out by the YPFSC in August 2011, to which 410 people
from 30 different countries responded.
From this survey, 91% of respondents were YPs, and 9% were seniors.

Also 36% were Women, and 64% were Men, and 76% of participants were under 35.

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The results of the survey were divided into four categories:- Important factors YPs consider when looking for a job,
- Problems which YPs have encountered while working in the consulting industry- Factors that motivate YPs to increase their contribution to their company,- Factors that prevent YPs from developing within their organization.
The results for each of these categories are discussed in the following sections.
1- Important factors YPs consider when looking for a job:
The survey results shows that collectively YPs considered the ‘Ability to move-up in thecompany’ the first priority followed by ‘Added benefits -such as cars, mobile phones, gym
membership, etc.’ taking second position. ‘Salary’ was placed in third position.

The survey results also show that YPs believe very much in the role of ‘Mentorship’ as theyput ‘good leadership support’ on a higher level than senior professionals did. These results
contrast with the view of seniors that ‘project experience’ is the second most important item,
whereas YPs collectively ranked this aspect no better than 6th place. The results therefore
indicate that YPs do not appreciate the importance of the experience gained through projects
as much as they should.

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2- Problems which YPs have encountered while working in the consulting industry.
Whilst it is widely regarded that ‘salary’ and ‘too much competition’ are major problems in
the engineering industry, 28% of YPs consider a ‘lack of training and developing programs’
to be the biggest issue for them. ‘Job challenges’ was identified by 26% of respondents as
the biggest issue, thus this issue follows the first placed issue very closely. The third placed
issue was ‘not enough challenging work’.

3- Factors which motivate YPs to increase their contribution to their companies.
Whilst the results indicate that ‘salary’ is not the biggest issue for the majority of YPs, theresults show that money is always a miracle motivator; 22% of YPs claim that ‘salary andreward’ motivate them more than other factors. The same percentage of YPs, 22%, identify
that ‘developing program / further education opportunity’ is of prime importance to them.

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With the high percentage of YPs identifying that a development program motivates themto contribute more, it is reassuring that 61% of seniors claim they have this in place for theiremployees BEFORE they become professionally qualified. Our results however indicatethat these programs are not as widespread as the results from seniors suggest, as only
39% of YPs confirmed that they have such programs.
There was also a conflict on development programmes AFTER professional qualification,as 75% of seniors stated these were in place for their employees, but only 33% of YPs
identified that these existed in their companies!
These results could reflect the difference in our sample size between seniors and YPs, witha higher percentage of seniors from companies with development programmes but theresults could equally indicate that companies are not effective in demonstrating to YPs thatthese programmes are in place, with a consequential reduction in the power to motivate!
While ‘more responsibility’ was placed third in the motivation factors, and 90% of YPs believethat they are capable of taking more responsibility on projects, only 46% of them claim that
there is not enough opportunity for them to do so. Are engineering companies under utilizing
their staff? Our results clearly indicate this!
One strange result from our survey was that YPs placed ‘ownership/shareholding’ in lastplace as a motivating factor, but note it is possible if we had identified ‘increased money
associated with owning shares in the company’ this may have been rated higher?

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4- Factors that prevent YPs from developing within their companies:
29% of YPs believe that a ‘conservative company environment’ prevents development morethan other factors. This would indicate hesitancy by industry to trust and develop the abilities
of YPs as much as they should. This is followed by 19% of YPs considering that ‘Job
difficulty’ prevents development.

Again in third place, the ‘Lack of training/development program’ was the third most common
YP response to factors that are constraining the development of YPs. To put things morepositively, 15% of YPs confirmed that there is no obstacle to prevent them from developing
more. A good start but the industry needs to do more to try and raise this figure!

The issues….
To put it briefly, the expectations of YPs can be divided into three main categories:
1. Reactive expectations: the responsiveness of HR management, the need for trust
in decision making and valuing the ideas of YPs. These aspects lead to a sense ofcommitment and belonging to the company, and individuals feeling empowered.
2. Motivating expectations: good company environment, respect and friendliness, theability to move up the management chain and non-financial rewards.
3. Financial expectations: good salary, financial rewards and share options.

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Our survey showed that, although financial expectations are very important, the reactive
and motivating expectations are more important for YPs. In particular, a good professional
development program, which involves training and mentoring, combined with the ability tomove up the management chain, is the main expectation of YPs. Moreover, while a highpercentage of senior managers considered their companies have planned development
programs, only approximately half the equivalent sample of YPs considered this was thecase, or considered them adequate.
It should be noted that, although when given a set of options to choose from, YPs collectively
ranked financial issues as the third in the list of most important issues at work. Financial
issues have been the topic that has been most frequently mentioned by YPs throughout
our investigation.
YPs also provided useful feedback on what difficulties they have faced and what has
frustrated them about their careers. These dissatisfactions include:- Financial problems such as low wages and delayed payments,- Obstacles in professional development such as lack of training programs and notreceiving recognition or promotions to reflect the role they are carrying out, and- Management issues such as not getting adequate feedback on their performance/project
outcomes, lack of attention to staff by management and vague descriptions of roles
and responsibilities within the firm.
The feedback from YPs has indicated that, although un-answered expectations do notnecessarily cause dissatisfaction with the company, it is often a contributing factor in YPs
looking at what other opportunities the industry can offer.
It is widely acknowledged that YPs look for good salary and development/training opportunities
when they choose a job, but our research has found that a lack of salary progression or
inadequate training is not often the stated reason for YPs who leave their current job.
However, the importance of a fair salary and adequate training must not be underminedwhen considering the long term health of a consulting business!
Also, our data indicates companies are very likely to lose young talent if there are management
problems,not sufficient feedback on performance, and particularly if there is a perceived
lack of care for employees to prepare a clear path for professional and managerial
development.
It is clear from the results that, as well as providing work on interesting, challenging projects
that motivate YPs and seniors alike, the industry needs to address YP development issues
and help develop efficient and effective engineers who can take on suitable levels of
responsibility.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15Japan & Australia Young Professionals Exchange Programme (YPEP) 2010
- Another success in technical and cultural exchangeThe Young Professionals Exchange Programme (YPEP) was established in 1996 according
to the Memorandum of Understanding agreed between AJCE and ACEA. The programme
is intended to promote good relationships and friendship between Japanese and Australian
young consulting engineers, in view of possible future collaboration among participating
firms. Over the past 15 years, more than 100 young engineers from Australia, New Zealandand Japan have attended this programme, and it has attracted the attention of otherorganizations, such as FIDIC, as a good example of a successful overseas training program.
In 2006, after a decade of active and meaningful exchanges, an additional importantcomponent was added to the programme; that of “Pre-visit Dialogue”. This requires trainees
to communicate with host firms’ personnel for several months before their visit on various
issues including technical, cultural and personal. The “Pre-visit Dialogue” helps the participants
to understand each other well in advance and thus enables the actual in-country training
to be more effective.

Tomoyuki Kitano
YPFSC
Japan

Asuka Ukese
Japan

In 2010, six Japanese young engineers from five consulting firms visited five Australianfirms in four cities over the course of three weeks. During the post-training meeting held
for the six trainees to share their experiences with AJCE’s young professionals, they reported
that they had a very stimulating and fruitful three weeks, full of technical exchange, discussion,site-visits, seminars, and importantly, social interaction after work! They also reported thatthey were really impressed by thedifference between two the countries
regarding work environment, work
habit and work-life balance.
The hope is that all six young
professionals will continue to develop
their skills further, capitalizing on theirprecious experience, and maintaintheir network with the Australianengineers, which will be a valuableasset in the future.

Signing Ceremony of MOU in 1995

Ms. Asuka Ukese is a member of CTI Engineering Co., Ltd. and one of the trainees mentioned
above. As a case example, her report is included as follows:
1. Introduction.
In YPEP2009, CTI Engineering (CTIE) hosted a young engineer from ARUP, Australia. In
2010, I participated in YPEP2010. My host firm, ARUP is an international consulting company,
whose head office is located in the United Kingdom (UK). About 10,000 employees areworking in 37 countries in the world. In the Australia offices, employees originate fromvarious countries including UK, Spain, India, China as well as Australia. My placement took
place from the 5th to 22nd of October at the Adelaide and Brisbane offices of ARUP.
2. Pre-visit Training.
My exchange partner within Arup was put in charge of my training. She belongs to the Water
Group where I had my training. In the pre-visit dialogue for two months, I communicated with
her about my travel schedule in Australia, accommodation, training program, etc. by e-mail.

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I was given assignments on water shortage in Murray River and proposed countermeasures.
Water shortage is a serious problem in Australia and my work was to compare water
problems between Australia and Fukuoka city in Japan.
3. Visit Training in host country
Work Experience
During my training, I visited various project sites such as the Murray River Mouth, wastewater
treatment plant, water desalination plant, and a zoo. The most interesting project for me
was the water recycling system implemented in Adelaide. Adelaide has been facing a water
shortage associated with scarce rainfall (about 500mm/yr). It is therefore very important to
use recycled water efficiently. In Adelaide, treated wastewater is delivered to many buildings
and houses through pipelines which are distributed throughout the city. This water is used
for non-drinking purposes such as toilets, parks, gardens, and car washes. South Australia
Water is the government entity that manages the utilization of water. They check that people
are using water properly on a daily basis. Through my experience I have a much better
appreciation of the importance of proper conservation of water. In Japan, as we havesufficient rainfall, we don’t usually pay much attention to this matter.
The Life and Water Problems Concerning the Murray River
During my stay in Australia, I watched the daily news programmes on television to help myunderstanding of English. Particularly, I was interested in items related to the Murray Riverproblems. The Murray River is an important resource of water in Queensland and South
Australia. Recently, the inflow of water to the river has reduced because of less rainfall, an
increase of water usage by irrigation, and increased water use associated with population
growth. As a result, water shortage now occurs in the Murray River and wetlands associatedwith the river dry up. As a countermeasure, the government of Queensland has imposeda plan to control the usage of water drawn from the river. The effect of the plan will be theloss of approximately 800 jobs and many farmers are opposing the plan. I am anxious toknow how the government will solve these problems.
Work-Life Balance
The basic business hours at my host company were 0900hrs to 1700hrs. Some peoplecame to the office early in the morning and went home earlier but overtime was not usually
worked; most staff had left the office by 1800hrs. This is quite different from my homecompany. I was impressed that people clearly separate private life from work. Most people
spend their time with their family and friends after work as well as during holidays. I
recognized that clients and consultants cooperate well through projects in a flexible andefficient manner in the course of project development. In addition, it seems that an Engineer’ssocial position in Australia is higher than that of Japan. In Japan, it is a challenge for us
to keep a good relationship with the client. We have to work with pressure to improve thequality of deliverables. I believe we need to improve the work environment whilst keeping
good motivation and controlling time. It was a good opportunity for me to think about worklife balance in the future.
Education of Young Engineers
The young employees at my host company undertake training for two years. The content
of the training is based on improving technical skill and softer skills such as communication
with clients. I observed that this is similar in Japan. To become a Chartered Engineer (CEng),
they have to submit documents on work experience and undergo an interview. Similarly, it
is very difficult to achieve qualification as a Professional Engineer (PEJp) in Japan. YPEP2010
gave me some good ideas and motivation to prepare for PEJp.

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FIDIC Conference 2011 – YP Programme Highlights
This year the FIDIC Conference took place in the picturesque mountain village of Davos,
Switzerland. The delegates were greeted by friendly hosts who spoiled us with scrumptious
food. The inspiring views energised us all and filled us with excitement for the conference.
It was a fun filled program that was kicked off on Sunday with a YPF “Meet and Greet”
where YPs were welcomed to the conference and informed on the many activities that wereplanned for them. This was followed by the official welcoming event of the conference which
was a lovely colourful party hosted by the Tunisian member Association.
On Tuesday morning, YPs were honoured to join the entire FIDIC Executive Committee fora breakfast seminar. At this event, YPs were welcome to ask the EC question on their minds,
and international work experience for YPs dominated the conversation.

For the first time during Annual FIDIC Conferences, the YPF session for the conference
was not a parallel session, but a Plenary Open Forum Tuesday morning attended by theentire conference delegation. The YP Open Forum included the following presentations:

Michele Kruger
YPFSC
South Africa

1. Andrew Steeves spoke about “Helping YPs align themselves with their personal strengths”(ie. technical vs. management vs marketing, etc.) to meet their career goals and thecompany's needs.
2. Manoochehr Azizi reported on the results of the FIDIC YPF survey that asked questions
regarding what YPs would like to see in a company with respect to developing their skills,
and how companies can provide the necessary resources and environment for YP
development. The survey results generated a lot of interest and thus we have included asummary report on the results within this Newsletter!

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3. Selena Wilson gave examples of how YPGs around the world are providing valuable
development opportunities to YPs outside their companies through training seminars, YP
programs at conferences, technical tours, volunteer efforts in the community, and mentor
ship. She discussed why these groups are so important for YP development, the developmentof companies, and the development of MOs and FIDIC. She provided a brief introductionof the FIDIC YPFSC, what we offer YPs, and how we can assist and promote the start ofYP groups in MOs that currently do not have YPGs.
4. Richard Stump provided a YP perspective on Business Integrity which included an updateon the FIDIC pilot program of the FIDIC Integrity Management System (FIMS). He provided
a perspective on what YPs think of business integrity and how learning Business Integrity
skills is of direct importance to the future development of companies.
5. Mr. Imai presented a YP development case study in Japan. He also thanked FIDIC andall the Member Associations for their help and support during the recent tough times thatJapan is currently facing from it’s natural disaster.
In summary, the Open Forum was a HUGE success and the speakers were bombarded formore details by delegates after the forum.
On Tuesday evening, YPs were taken on a tour of the Davos Avalanche Institute, where
various instruments and experiments
were demystified and an impressive
video footage of avalanches gave the
YPs a new respect for the power ofnature.

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After the trip to the Avalanche Institute, the local Swiss Member Association spoiled the
YPs with lovely food and drinks. A good time was had by all!
For more details, enjoy the articles on the above events and a personal account of the
FIDIC Young Management Training Program by Melanie Kemp Hofmeyr.

Young Professionals Management Training ProgramThis year’s Young Professional Management Training Program (YPMTP) was attended byparticipants from all corners of the world (see Map provided).

Melanie Kemp
HofmeyrSouth Africa-The Program started in February 2011; participants worked through case studies that wereprepared by the organisers. The goal of these case studies was to systematically workthrough the FIDIC Guide to Practice and other FIDIC documentation.
The structure included dividing participants into three teams, and after each session, an
editor was appointed to collate the team’s effort. My own editing partner Mark Connell, from
Hatch Canada, and I had a great time putting together the conclusion over time zones andlearning from one another via email and telephone. These sessions continued to late
September and participants continued communicating through the internet.
For the latter part of the programme, participants met for a five day intense workshop in
Davos prior to the FIDIC Conference. These few days were excellent and are described
below.
DAY 1-3During the official sessions participants had the opportunity to debate case studies anddiscuss why certain conclusions were made during the sessions over the year. This gave
the opportunity for everyone to explain how they do things in their country. It was also an
opportunity to discuss challenges and solutions that countries face from young professional’s
perspective.

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Our Social Director Sandro Ricci ensured that we experienced Davos outside of the classroom
by arranging fun activities in the afternoons and evenings. This included a trip with a cablecar to Schaltzalp, a visit to Davos See and a central point for dinner each evening.
Some photos are included below.

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DAY 4-5This was the core of the experience as we had to prepare for the future leaders workshop.
Brainstorming exercises and a controlled environment by fellow peers ensured excellent
results that were showcased in the last session of the 2nd day of the FIDIC conference in
the Future Leaders Workshop.
The Future Leaders Workshop presentation can be downloaded from:www.congrex.ch/fileadmin/files/2011/fidic2011/downloads/FIDIC YPMTP_presentation_final2_audio.pdf

The core issues from our last days can be identified in this presentation. The photo below
was taken after our graduation ceremony. Our slogan of the day was “Let the young speak.”

As an active participant of YPMTP 2011, I have to thank my fellow participants for opening
a world of engineering to me that may never existed for a lady from Cape Town, South
Africa. To the facilitators: Steen Frederiksen, Ben Novak, Bayo Adeola, John Ritchie andRobin Crouch; you have taught us the core of a consulting engineering practice.
I would recommend to any young professional if you have the opportunity to attend thisprogramme, don’t hesitate to grab it.

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HOW TO BECOME PART OF THE FIDIC YPF GROUP
Become part of this young dynamic group of people and receive updates, newsletters andinformation on upcoming events such as FIDIC conferences and training opportunities.
International YPF Groups: find out what the YPs in your country are doing and how toconnect with them! Please register on the YPF homepage listed below.
Communications
Chairperson
FIDIC YPF Steering
Committee

Once we have your details, we will send you our newsletter and other info as it comes up.
Please remember to keep your details updated!
For general information about us and FIDIC, go to: www.fidic.org
For more information or if you need help to connect, contact myself at:
fidicypforum@gmail.com

Michele Kruger
Communications Chairperson
FIDIC YPF Steering Committee

Michele Kruger
South Africa
Starting your own YPF in your country
If you liked what you saw in the FIDIC YPF and YPFs across the world, why not start yourown? This is best achieved through your country’s Member Association (MA) of FIDIC.
However, if no such association exists, or your MA does not want to have their own YPF,
you can contact us to find out how to start your own YPF. Through FIDIC we may haveresources to make it easier or help partner it with you. All you need is your enthusiasm forEngineering! From there you decide what it is that you want your YPF to represent. Whatis your focus? Is it training Young Professionals? Is it getting the youth interested inEngineering? Is it just socializing with your peers? Or is it all of the above? As the FIDIC
YPF, we will do all we can to support your new endeavor!
Contact us at: fidicypforum@gmail.com