Is your building fire safe? Dishana makes it her business

With an established career in the construction industry and keen to enter into building and fire safety, Dishana Liang found the balance between work and postgraduate studies through VU’s flexible block learning.

“When I was ready to progress in my career assessing fire engineered performance solutions, I chose VU as they’re renowned in the industry as the sole provider of the necessary postgrad qualification.

The course is great for students like me who are already in the workforce. It was separated into four week-long blocks throughout the year. I was fortunate to get study leave from work during those blocks, and my workplace (du Chateau Chun) partially covered the course costs.

I loved that the course was taught almost entirely by industry experts who were able to give real, practical and applicable advice.

Working in the industry while I studied meant that I could apply the knowledge I gained in real time.

The construction and building surveying industries are definitely still male dominated. But I’ve always felt supported in my role both within my company as a building code and access consultant, and working with consultants from other firms.

In the past 10 years I’ve seen an increase in female participation across the board – from architecture, project management, quantity surveying, building and engineering – so I would strongly encourage more females to enter the industry.”