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33 DEFENCE FORCES PODCAST of Engineers and the type of challenges or the exciting opportunities that are available for young engineers. You don't have to go into engineering through the standard routes, into consultant engineering or into an industrial setting. There is this whole other areas, combat engineering and overseas humanitarian work which is really exciting." Looking at the Graduate Programme, Cmdt McManus said it was focussed on undergraduates or graduates who can join the Defence Forces as an Engineer Cadet. She added: "For people who don't understand that, a Cadetship is an elite leadership programme, it is probably one of the only opportunities you would get at that age to do leadership and management to that standard. It is a 17-month programme. "If you are successful in finishing that you then do an engineering focussed training programme. This focusses on the combat engineering and the infrastructural engineering aspect of the Defence Forces. That programme lasts about 15 months so altogether you have about three years of training once you join. Thereafter you are a fully qualified combat engineer. "You will spend time in a unit in the Defence Forces and that would culminate in an overseas mission where you essentially would lead the engineer team on the ground as part of a wider battalion tea. You are the lead, you are the person to make an impact, you will be the one to make a difference. Altogether it's about a 4-to-5-year graduate programme where you will receive excellent leadership and management training, very focussed specific combat engineering skills and culminating in an overseas mission." As regards academic qualifications, she said the Young Engineers Officers course resulted in a Level 9 Master's in leadership and Management and Engineering. The course also offered a wide range of skills. "When you do your engineering degree in college, you learn the principles of engineering and how to think like an engineer. But those concepts are really stretched to their limit in the Defence Forces because you are asked to apply those principles of engineering – and the way of thinking like an engineer – to many different engineering disciplines and very many difference experiences and applications. "So, it is very wide ranging. Everything from to power distribution and transmission to water and environmental issues to infrastructural elements. It doesn't matter what your engineering discipline is, you will have to upskill in those. You will also have to upskill in combat principles, a lot of work on explosives, demolition, bridge building design, project management, leadership management skills, HR. Working in that team environment, collaboratively with other engineers with their own discipline and also with your team of technicians," she said. Regarding financial remuneration, a graduate engineer joining the army engineers cadetship, the starting salary was approximately €20,000. "That does seem quite low, but it is essentially a training programme and an internship. As soon as you qualify, as soon as you finish the 17 months, you immediately go on to an engineer's salary which is approximately €50,000. So, your starting salary as an engineer in the Defence Forces is €50,000. You can compare that on the Engineers Ireland salary survey and you can see it is more than comparable with what is on offer outside for graduate engineers. So financially it is quite attractive." However, Cmdt McManus said she believed that most people, especially at that age, were not motivated by money but by the career opportunities and the experiences and the work they are going to be doing. There were really exciting opportunities and a chance to hone leadership and management skills in the Army which a graduate engineer would not get outside the Defence Forces. "A lot of young engineers don't realise how important those skills are until they are much further down the road in their career. But these are the type of skills that you get through the Cadetship and the Young Engineers Officer course. They are extremely transferrable, they are extremely rare so they are very valued and also they are the type of skills that really can't be taught. You have to absorb them tacitly through experience and through being challenged in certain ways. They are the type of skills that won't be replaced by technology or AI in the future so they will become very valued skills. I think that is a very valuable asset you get from both the Cadetship and the Young Engineers Officers course", she stated. There was also the lifestyle, the friendships made and the opportunities to travel either on long term missions or short-term courses and seminars. There are gymnasiums in every barracks and medical and dental needs are covered. "But for me it is about the friendships you make and the bonds you make with people. For me it has been about, and has always been, about the range of experiences you get. I am in the Defence Forces almost 24 years, but it feels like I have had three or four different jobs because of the range Pictured in the background is one of the ESSC trucks as members of the ESSC (Engineers Specialist Search and Clearance) team carry out orders for the 62nd Inf Gp UNDOF MRE

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