Alcoa Australia
Vacation Student - Chemical Engineer VIC (Nov 2025)
Portland
Opportunity details
- Internship, Clerkship or Placement
- AUD 69000 / Year
- 2 vacancies
- Apply by 30 May 2025
- Start date 24 Nov 2025
Shape your career by joining Alcoa’s Vacation Student program!
Based in Victoria at our Portland Aluminium Smelter, this is your opportunity to help shape the future of sustainability with world-changing innovations and low-carbon technologies.
Become a valued part of the team that’s reinventing the aluminium industry for a sustainable future, revolutionising the way the world lives, builds, moves and flies.
About the role
Shape your potential with a 12-week paid summer placement as a Chemical Engineer Vacation Student where you'll experience professional growth, technical expansion, and become an integral part of our vibrant community, where inspiration and daily challenges await.
What’s on offer?
- Exposure to industry and a future career at Alcoa.
- An attractive hourly rate of pay for the hours you work.
- Meaningful project work that provides you with valuable hands-on work experience
- Working locally, in an onsite environment enabling you to return home to friends or family every night.
- Inclusion and diversity networks; shaping a culture where everyone is welcome, respected and heard.
- Be part of our commitment to sustainability, delivering world class technology and innovations that lead the aluminium industry!
- A workplace culture that strongly values your safety.
- Increased opportunity to gain a place in the Alcoa Graduate Program after you have completed your degree.
What you’ll be doing
As a Chemical Engineering Vacation Student at Alcoa, you will be:
- based on site at our Portland Aluminium Smelter.
- assigned a project (either lab or refinery based) that both delivers real value to the business and provides you with hands-on industry experience.
- exposed to a combination of data and statistical analysis of process information, refinery sampling and laboratory analysis.
- involved in process troubleshooting, computer-based data manipulation and trending heat and mass balances.
If you are currently studying tertiary qualifications in Process Control or Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline, we want to hear from you!
About you
We are interested in hearing from curious university students who are:
- Ideally, in their penultimate year of study, however we do accept applications across all year groups.
- Self-motivated and passionate for their chosen discipline, eager to learn and expand their knowledge.
- Capable of working independently with the ability to communicate and engage with multiple stakeholders to obtain a project outcome.
- Strong team players with effective time management, organisational and problem-solving skills.
- Available to commence end of November 2024 for a full-time 12-week period ending February 2025.
- Have the ability to travel to and from the Portland Smelter each work day.
Application and Recruitment process
- Submit your online application via the link provided or the Alcoa Careers website, and include a cover letter, resume and academic transcript.
- Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete:
- A short online video interview.
- Psychometric testing
- Reference checking
- Pre-employment medical assessment
Hiring criteria
- No experience required
- Australian Citizen +more
- Engineering & Mathematics
- Bachelor or higher
Reviews
I enjoy monitoring the process in my area and optimising where I can. Often little things have high impact when fixed or implemented which I enjoy.
Good mix of long-term projects and day to day work. Site exposure allows for more hands-on work experience and implementation of ideas.
My current role sees me responsible for all engineering in an integral part of the refining process. Ensuring equipment is adequately maintained, creating solutions to problems that arise, and looking at future improvements.
About the employer
Alcoa Australia
3.9
1,000 - 50,000 employees
Mining, Oil & Gas
Alcoa thrives by developing best practices that improve our bauxite, alumina and aluminium business units. Join us on our journey!
Pros and cons of working at Alcoa Australia
Pros
Getting to rotate between different roles and experience different parts of the company.
Training and career development Great support structure Flexible working arrangements.
Leisure days off are a great perk.
I like the flexibility to work from home twice per week, and the ability to flex hours based on commitments if needed.
The variety of work keeps things interesting and engaging.
Cons
The lack of structure and care for the Graduate Program. Especially with no emphasis to the managers/supervisors to set a mentor and a training schedule.
Sometimes it feels like you're just a number.
Old systems and technology used.
The offices need upgrading as well as the equipment in the offices.
The business promotes inclusion, but they continue to hire and promote people in the business whose values do not align with the message they are trying to convey.