The result of what was essentially an experiment led to a successful inaugural career fair in Timor-Leste.
As part of the SPE Western Australia Section’s continuing pledge of connecting Timor-Leste energy, geology, and petroleum engineering students with the energy industry, a Q4 career fair was held in November 2024 at UNTL Hera just outside Dili, when we welcomed more than 200 third-year and fourth-year students and recent graduates.
The event was generously sponsored by Edith Cowan University (ECU) School of Engineering in Perth. We helped ECU promote its postgraduate courses on offer by delivering a dedicated presentation coupled with the use of specially made banners and table-top promotional cards.
Not all sponsors currently have employment openings available, nevertheless this event offered a valuable opportunity for the sponsors to showcase their organizations, current activities, and future plans in Timor-Leste, simultaneously offering a ray of light to the students. Optimistically there will be more career prospects in the future for Timorese nationals, not only locally but also in Australia.
Several sponsors traveled specially to Dili for the career fair including DISR from Canberra, SLB from Perth, and INPEX from Darwin, demonstrating significant commitment to this cause. All other sponsors as well as ANP were represented by staff from their Dili offices. Dean Finlayson and I attended on behalf of SPE WA.
We kicked off the event the evening before at the Sky Garden in Timor Plaza Hotel with welcome drinks followed by a buffet dinner to allow the student officers to engage with the sponsors, provided as a component of ECU’s sponsorship.
The career fair featured sessions alternating between formal talks in the auditorium and time for the students to interact with our sponsors at their booths. It was fulfilling to witness students from four universities—Dili Institute of Technology, Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e (UNTL), University of Dili (UNDIL), and Universidade Oriental Timor Lorosa'e (UNITAL)—eagerly engage with our sponsors about their respective organizations as well as learn about postgrad courses on offer at ECU. Our emcees were Henny Pires, UNTL, and Hugo Guterres, DIT.
Immense thanks to all of our sponsors and supporters who actively participated in setting up information booths, delivering talks, and offering visions of potential pathways to which the students can aspire.
Among the highlights:
Timor Gap: Rui Soares, president and CEO of Timor Gap, graciously delivered keynote remarks to the students including insights of his own time at the Australian School of Petroleum (ASP), University of Adelaide, when he was an SPE student member.
ANP: Fernando da Silva for his welcoming comments representing the National Petroleum Authority.
Santos: Reinalda Pires, external relations Santos, distributed 40 soccer balls equally to students from the four institutions, and Orlando da Silva provided relevant technical overviews.
DISR (Department of Industry, Science, and Resources): Nicholas Kettle and Hayden Jackson for helping to further promote the Timor-Leste Australia Energy Partnership, together with ANP.
INPEX Corporation: Brodie Sugai for his summary of INPEX, their flagship Ichthys development, and his career to date.
SLB: Louise Flux, new talent acquisition manager, for sharing insights of both SLB principal business units as well as the various phases of her career.
Sunda Energy: Dino Gandara, technical manager, for his overview of the Chuditch reservoir and the company’s future development plans.
Caltech: Xaninha Miranda, operations manager, for an overview of their diverse operations and pioneering recycling plants in Dili.
SPE WA: Dean Finlayson, treasurer, for summarizing SPE WA’s ongoing steadfast commitment to supporting Timorese energy students
SPE Timor-Leste Student Chapter: Inersia Soares for her passionate end-of-term speech and the inaugural president, Napoleão Magno Guterres, for his launch speech as the incoming president, past VP Kevin Alexandro Martins for singing an iconic song, “Timor-Leste Bele” by Neurtura, and Cecilia Pinto for leading the traditional Timorese dancers.
UNTL: Our sincere gratitude to the rector of UNTL, Joao Soares Martins, and vice dean Domingos de Sousa Freitas, for kindly facilitating our use of their amazing auditorium at the Hera Campus.
All things considered, especially that as SPE section officers we are all volunteers, it was a worthwhile and memorable event. Formal email requests for feedback were positive, including encouraging signals that this is something worth repeating in 2025. A few important changes will include extended time at the booths and perhaps putting the students in small groups with allocated times to visit each sponsor organization.
Until we meet again in Q4 2025, we are proud to continue this journey to create life-changing opportunities.
