TEAM SPIRIT
Alice Tse, one of our most promising female graduate engineers, shares inside
tips on successfully fast-tracking to the top of Leighton’s graduate scheme
Sitting in our Hong Kong business’
pre-contracts department, Alice Tse
is now in her fourth and final year
of Leighton’s graduate programme.
This September she will undergo the
Institute of Civil Engineering’s final
exam, the last hurdle before earning
her stripes as a chartered engineer.
In her four years with Leighton, Alice
has demonstrated a strong aptitude
for engineering. Her outstanding
potential is evident in the diverse array
of challenging roles that she has been
assigned across the Hong Kong
business.
On her first on-site assignment on
MTR’s Contract 903 project, Alice
quickly demonstrated her ability as a
design engineer, where she assisted
Insite Magazine
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the site manager to communicate with
other design consultants for temporary
works.
She was then transferred to frontline
construction, where she assisted the
site agent in supervising project works
and co-ordinating sub-contractors.
To round off her graduate training,
Alice was recently transferred to the
pre-contracts department in our
Hong Kong corporate head office.
Embracing the opportunity to put her
experience and theory into practice,
it was not long before she was
tasked with designing construction
methods for piling and writing method
statements for façade installation.
“I’m not so keen on the desk job”,
says Alice, leaning in conspiratorially,
“I much prefer being out on-site –
amongst all the action”, she confides with
a grin. Her biggest and most rewarding
challenge in her career at Leighton to
date was leading a Temporary Traffic
Management (TTM) operation on the
MTR Contract 903 project. In this highly
demanding role, Alice was responsible
for coordinating with the foreman
and subcontractor representative for
resources, sequencing and how to
execute the job.
It was an unusually high level of
responsibility to be accorded to a
graduate engineer, and provides an
indication of the level of regard her
managers hold for her. “For a graduate
engineer, this is particularly demanding
work that carries a high level of
responsibility”, explains Alice. “Usually
this is the job of a site agent or senior
engineer”, she adds.
In the last four years Alice has chalked
up numerous personal successes. Chief
among these, she says, is the manner
in which she has demonstrated her
competence among her male peers.
“The construction sector is still very much
male dominated and females have to
work that much harder to prove that they
are just as competent”, she notes. “In the
early days, foremen and supervisors were
reluctant to even speak to me; they would
always try to go over my head to a more
senior engineer. But in the end, I proved
that I am equal to any male”.
Where does she see herself ten years
from now? She doesn’t hesitate before
answering with resolute determination: “I
will be well on the way to becoming the
first local female Project Director in Hong
Kong”.
Go for it, Alice!
INPROFILE
SHOOTING TO THE TOP – LEIGHTON
WOMEN IN ENGINEERING
