Electrical Degree Holder Joins Construction

Aug 12, 2025 | News | 0

Phillipa Site Coordinator CCECC Santo, during her 8-month contract. Photos: Supplied

Electrical Engineering and Automation Degree holder Philippa Seresere returned to Vanuatu post-graduation from Beijing Institute only to find herself in an entirely different profession with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) in Santo.

The Tongoan Electrical Engineer graduate explained how she applied to a number of places which matched her degree but had no success, then a Site Coordinator position opened up in Santo with CCECC and that was where she started.

“It is a reality that people come back after studies and find it hard to work. Maybe because there’s not enough employment here in Vanuatu or something like that. But we just try.”

“They think they’re going to get a job easy, but they end up in a place where it’s not really their profession,” she said.

Director of Youth Challenge Vanuatu (YCV) and the Vanuatu Wok Programme Noel Stevens said that students need to have work experience, and in order to get that, more apprenticeship programs needs’ to be made available for tertiary and university graduates.

“There are plenty factors that contribute, one of the factors is lacking experience and skills, another one is there are a lot of other people with the same qualifications, then there’s politics – who you know, then there’s internal hiring instead of outside, internship programmes needed, apprenticeship is needed.”

Vanuatu Wok is a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working on youth leadership and livelihoods since 2001, specialising in offering young people employment and enterprise training courses, aimed at those without school qualifications, our courses, which include life skills, internships and counselling, smooth the pathway into employment, enterprise or further study.

Ms Seresere who is now about to embark on her Master’s Degree for Electrical Engineering in Beijing remains concerned that when she returns, regardless if she has qualifications, she might still not be able to find employment.

“For a newly graduate, your best chance is to get a graduate position in a company or an intern. But most of the places that you try to ask for an intern or a graduate position, they still won’t accept you for some reason. If you have experience, then you can work.

“It’s a reality right now. Maybe some people would just come and try other fields of work like I’m doing right now. I studied electrical engineering, but now I’m in construction.

“I just put myself out there in another field and I learn a new skill. It’s like building up another experience, adding it into my resume. I have the skills of this area as well.”

Glass half full view

Ms Seresere spent eight months with CCECC before acquiring a scholarship through the Chinese Embassy to pursue her Masters, while construction was never in her wheelhouse, the Tongoan electrical engineer is making the most of it until she finds what she went to school for.

“I’ve applied, but no one really came back to me. So, I looked at CCECC and I advertised my job there. So, I was like, okay, let me just try it out while waiting for those other ones to come back to me.”

The former CCECC Santo based Site Coordinator is fluent in Chinese, which added to her role as an interpreter on site as well with the locals and Chinese counterparts.

When questioned how she fit in so comfortably in a position she had no background in, she said: “I just have the confidence in doing something that you think you’re not able to do, people say that, oh, it’s a man’s job or you can’t do that because you’re a female. So, just be confident in the thing you can do it. If you’re really, really determined, be determined, you can achieve anything if you’re actually determined to do it.”

The 28-year-old is expected to be leaving for China in September and is hopeful that when she returns she will find an occupation more suitable to her qualifications.

“I just take one step at a time until maybe I can find the right job for me. There’s not much of internship that companies are providing now in Vanuatu.”

“If I’m lucky to find private companies that work with renewable resources like solar or hydro, that would be good for me,” she said.

SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST

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