Our industry is quickly losing experienced personnel to retirements and life style changes. Re-Wirement will allow these experienced operators to be available for part time employment, training sessions or remote mentoring of our next generation of water industry personnel.
Re-Wired persons who wish to offer something useful from their professional lives, while at the same time remaining active and engaged are welcome to register their interest online.
Benefits for retirees
Re-Wirement 1
Many people spend their lives focussed on work, and when this reduces or ceases altogether, it can create a vacuum that needs to be filled with other activities.
Travelling is one such alternative, but this can only last so long, before a need to feel useful asserts itself again.
Re-Wirement 2
Having a reason to travel around the country can benefit the health and wellbeing of retired or part retired water industry personnel, as there will always be a need for part time operational staff, to replace personnel on leave or attending training courses.
Keeping skills and experiences ‘up to date’ is also a good excuse to take part in training courses when available – this will keep the mind active and engaged.
Re-Wirement 3
Remaining connected to industry groups and attending conferences and workshops is a great way to maintain an interest in past life experiences. Acting as a volunteer at these events can be beneficial to both the industry and the person involved.
New ideas can be tempered with past experience of issues that may not have been considered in todays ‘technical age’, but history has proved that ideas and experiences keep on repeating themselves, in one form or another.
Benefits for young operators
Re-Wirement 1
Many people spend their lives focussed on work, and when this reduces or ceases altogether, it can create a vacuum that needs to be filled with other activities.
Travelling is one such alternative, but this can only last so long, before a need to feel useful asserts itself again.
Re-Wirement 2
Having a reason to travel around the country can benefit the health and wellbeing of retired or part retired water industry personnel, as there will always be a need for part time operational staff, to replace personnel on leave or attending training courses.
Keeping skills and experiences ‘up to date’ is also a good excuse to take part in training courses when available – this will keep the mind active and engaged.
Re-Wirement 3
Remaining connected to industry groups and attending conferences and workshops is a great way to maintain an interest in past life experiences. Acting as a volunteer at these events can be beneficial to both the industry and the person involved.
New ideas can be tempered with past experience of issues that may not have been considered in todays ‘technical age’, but history has proved that ideas and experiences keep on repeating themselves, in one form or another.
Foundation
Bernd Vetter and Jim Martin are the creators of Re-Wired, a project to allow retired, semi-retired and water industry personnel looking for a ‘sea change’, to re-enter the workforce.
Re-Wirement aims to connect willing personnel with water industry groups requiring part time assistance with training, operations or mentoring roles.
This will be ideal for the retired and semi-retired travelling personnel who wish to work their way around the country and remain current with their respective skill sets and qualifications.
Water Utilities, Councils and Shires can tap into this expertise pool, to obtain valuable input across plant and network operations around Australia.
Process
Forum
The Forum is for general knowledge share and seeking answers to specific problems and issues. For example:
- Our residual chlorine level is not stable – what should we check and do?
- Who should we call for a specialized service and how well did they perform?
- We are assessing a tender application – has anyone used this particular company before?
Forum allows the ‘water community’ to connect with each other and solve issues that may have been encountered before.
Register
Interested persons can offer their details, skills, competencies and availabilities into the online Re-Wirement, Register section.
Enquiries
Water entities can use the Re-Wirement Enquiries page to table their needs and find a suitable match to fill roles on a temporary or short term basis.