RMIT International Industry Experience and Research Program (RIIERP)

Jason Seris and Warwick Cann – current and future RMIT interns with Rolls-Royce.

Paul Birch, Executive Director Human Resources at RIIERP partner, Siemen Ltd is a great advocate for RIIERP. Siemens, the multinational power, transport, communications and technology giant became involved with RIIERP because of the access to highly skilled graduates they had.

“I’m passionate about this program. It’s a credit to RMIT that there are now 200 placements overseas that companies are willing to offer – it speaks for the quality of RMIT students. For Australian students to get work experience in a very impressive variety of truly globalised companies and to come back here to Australia, is invaluable. It’s good for business down the track”.

RIIERP is the only program of its kind in Australia. It aims to educate graduates to be global in outlook, to make them more internationally employable.

Initially established in 1992 in Aerospace Engineering by Professor Silvester Abanteriba, RIIERP now extends across every discipline at RMIT to include 140 partner organisations in 10 different developed countries.

Students apply for a work placement in a company aligned to their field of study. RIIERP arranges the overseas placement of some 160 undergraduate, graduate and research students or fellows each year. Past placements have allowed RMIT postgraduate students to pursue research into space navigation at the Germen Aerospace Research centre, fuel injection systems at the Robert Bosch Centre of Excellence in Stuttgart, polymer research at BASF in Ludwigshafen and participate in leading edge research in turbo-machinery at TRANE in the USA.

RIIERP benefits everyone involved. Students get a practical work environment and build important professional networks. RMIT gains access to international research facilities and retains graduates who may have looked elsewhere to continue their studies. The partner organisations benefit from having quality students and researchers at their businesses without the usual overheads of recruitment, selection and induction.

The RIIERP Industry Global Advisory Board includes senior executives from multinational companies who advise RMIT on global industry needs, help shape the program, share business expertise, increase industry placements and further the development of the program. Students are selected on the basis of academic achievement and interview performance.

Research shows that 80% of Australian employers would favour an applicant who had overseas work experience over one who did not.

And the research is born out in the jobs students get upon graduation.