Workplace Diversity

ICE understands the value diversity in our workforce provides all our team members and our clients, whether it is ethnic, gender or religious. We strive for an inclusive workforce that is reflective of the community that we live in.

Women entering Electrical or Instrumentation trades are increasing but not at the rate of more traditional roles, to ensure opportunities exist organisations need to be flexible and invest in training and mentoring or just taking a chance such that the roles are seen as rewarding both financially and professionally and hence attracting more starters.

Finding suitably qualified female industrial Electricians that are happy to work away from home for weeks at a time in harsh and remote environments adds to the challenge.

To this end ICE are very pleased to have recently recruited Lisa Macey to further enhance our team with another trades based can do woman; below is her story;

“In 2018 I travelled from the UK on a working holiday, my visa allowed me to work so my preference was to find employment as an Electrician as this is what I am qualified for in the UK. I was happy to do other things but ideally wanted to gain industrial FIFO (fly in fly out) experience in my field as previously I mainly worked in the domestic and commercial sectors. My goal was the find a job on a mine site or hopefully for an Oil and Gas company so I could upskill myself and gain experience working with Electrical Equipment in Hazardous Areas.
I found a job advertisement on Seek for electricians and instrumentation Technicians with ICE Engineering & Construction “an Adelaide based Industrial Electrical & Instrumentation construction company that operated nationally and specialised in remote area work”. I checked out their web site and they looked professional and worked for the big mining and Oil & Gas companies so I thought I should give it a go.

Even though I didn’t match all the requirements I applied and hoped someone would look at my resume.. .Well, I received a phone call and had a detailed discussion over the phone, then a face to face meeting and was offered a clerical position to work in their main office in Adelaide which although it is not the type of work I enjoy, it was a start. After a couple of months, they had an opening for an electrical Trades Assistant working on the Iluka, Patricia Ambrosia mine near Ceduna in outback South Australia.

I was initially worried about working and living at a mine site that one of the most remote places I have ever been to as it was a completely new experience, but after my inductions and being told that new starters on site are “buddied” with long term ICE employees to help keep us safe I was much more at ease . It was a small camp of around 120 people, and everyone was very welcoming and friendly and the experience was very positive.

On completion of the Iluka job I was asked if I would like to go to the Cooper Basin which is a remote area stretching over the SA, NSW and Queensland borders as ICE has contracts with Santos, Beach Energy, APA, Strike Energy and Senex Energy providing E&I services from their Moomba Branch. Working in the gas industry is again completely new to me and everyone at ICE is happy to answer any questions I have and take the time to explain things without me feeling like I am being a nuisance.

I continue to learn new aspects of my trade, am exposed to operational systems and safety processes that are giving me the awareness and experience I can use anywhere.

Being a female onsite can be difficult as you feel like you need to continuously prove that you can perform and achieve as well as everyone else. The guys at the various Cooper Basin sites and companies have made me feel very comfortable and I enjoy being a part of the ICE team here”.

Lisa Macey