Ready, set, go!

For the past two days I have completed my induction for Alcoa at its Pinjarra Refinery, which means I am now able to start my internship next week! I am really excited to work for Alcoa - this is actually my dream employer. I had the opportunity to complete my work experience with their community relations team during in high school and that was one of the primary reasons I chose to study public relations. I will start at the Booragoon office on Monday for four days then continue one day a week at various sites, particularly with Wagerup's community relations team again (located in Waroona).

Most of the induction covered information that was irrelevant to my internship given that I will be working in the office and not on-site, covering health and safety for working on the refineries or mines. However, I gained a great of knowledge from my induction. I was able to better understand what activities Alcoa does within the public relations field including their major partnerships, awards, media policy and employee volunteerism. I realised they are an industry leader in a variety of areas, especially environment and community development. Did you know that they have one of the longest and most successful environmental partnerships in Australia? They recently celebrated their 30 year partnership with Greening Australia. I am excited to learn more about their community contributions and success stories to develop my abilities in this area.

I also learnt a lot about the aluminium industry and the company. For example, I think it is pretty incredible that 75% of the aluminium that was first developed by Alcoa is still in use today! Also that Alcoa are currently the only company that is involved in every stage of the aluminium-making process. I bet you didn’t realise just how much you use aluminium - it’s used for trains, cars, laptops, mobile phones, DVDs, outdoor furniture, bottle tops and, of course, beverage cans. These were just some of the interesting facts I learnt, so I am really looking forward to what the remainder of the internship will bring. If you want to learn more about Alcoa, you can follow this link.

Wish me luck for my first day in the office.