As students progress further into a degree, the decision of vocation selection, and even more importantly - securing employment in a particular industry sector, can become quite daunting. However, with a little initiative, students can overcome these issues by not only researching what employment opportunities exist, but by applying for summer vacation employment. Undergraduate vacation employment, especially with a world-leading hydrometallurgy research organisation such as the Parker Centre, can dramatically alter a student's perspective of particular industries and possibly even alter their selection of vocation pursuits upon graduating. Students can also use vacation employment to enhance their networking capabilities, technical skills and knowledge by dealing with challenging new topics such as sulfur dioxide leaching, which is also discussed in this article._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Sommerville, K, 2005. Learning to be excellent, in Proceedings New Leaders' 2005, pp 7-18 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).