The Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA) Ambassadors will be officially inducted on Thursday by Queensland Resources Council (QRC) Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane at the QMEA’s Virtual Annual finale event.

“The students will by then have visited New Hope’s Jeebropilly Mine, and a rehabilitated minesite, Hastings Deering’s training centre, the Safety in Mines Testing and Research Station (SIMTARS) and the University of Queensland School of Mechanical & Mining Engineering,” said Mr Macfarlane.

“These students are the cream of the crop from our 80 QMEA schools across the state, and just the sort of talent we need in our technologically advanced resources sector,” he said.

“The success of the QMEA in attracting young people into the resources sector is borne out in statistics provided to us by the Queensland Government in its Next Step Destination data.

“For example, of QMEA students seeking a study pathway, almost a quarter entered into engineering & related technologies compared to 15 percent of students from non-QMEA schools.

“And, of QMEA Indigenous students entering study, a third entered engineering and related technologies compared to just 16 percent from non-QMEA schools.

“The ambassadors will be entering year-12 next year and we certainly hope to see many of them in our offices and on mine sites in the years to come.”

The QMEA engages with 80 schools throughout Queensland and is a partnership between the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) and the Queensland Government under its Gateway to Industry Schools program.

The QRC is Queensland’s peak representative body for coal, metal and gas explorers, producers and suppliers across the resources sector. It contributes one in every five dollars to the Queensland economy, sustains one in six Queensland jobs and supports more than 15,000 businesses and more than 1200 community organisations across the state – all from 0.1 percent of Queensland’s land mass.