Page 20 - Climate Control News August 2021

NextGen 2021
A promising career
LEFT: Stephanie Peters left university to begin her apprenticeship.
BELOW: The most successful apprentices claim they have a lot of support in the workplace.
thing that kept me going is my bosses who have taught me a lot.”
South Australian technician, Raymond Vlist has also just completed his apprenticeship and is planning to use his skills to travel around Aus- tralia. Raymond has left his job and is preparing for his big trip. Raymond says the pandemic has stalled his plans but it has given him more time to prepare his van and make sure he has enough tools. The 23-year-old always planned to get a trade to have the skills necessary to support his travel plans. “I am so glad I chose this trade be- cause there always seems to be plenty of work.”
COLIN MCGILVRAY IS a first year apprentice at Woolworths in Brisbane. The 20 year old en- joys welding and says the best part of the trade is the variety of work technicians get to undertake. “We also have a very supportive team which is great for the all the apprentices,” Colin says.
Stephanie Peters is the first female appren- tice at the Brisbane-based branch of Broadcast Services Australia (BSA). Before commencing her trade Stephanie went to university to study both arts and law subjects. “In high school it was really drilled into us that university was the only pathway and because of that I didn’t
“I AM HOPING
TO GO AS FAR AS
I CAN IN THIS TRADE.”
really know what I wanted to,” she says. “I needed a trade that had heaps of different as- pects and air conditioning and refrigeration has all of these things, so I took a shot and have loved it ever since.”
First year apprentice at Hiflow Industries, Caleb Pouros, is keen to learn everything he can about the trade. “I am hoping to go as far as I can in this trade,” he says.
Caleb knew he wanted to be a RAC apprentice straight from school and began seeking out op- portunities. So far, he says learning about chill- ers has been interesting.
The 19-year-old also wants to do more work
with boilers. “I am not sure where my apprentice- ship will take me in the future because right now my focus is on completing my apprenticeship,” Caleb says.
Omega Refrigeration technician, Vasilios Tsakirakis, has just completed his apprentice- ship. The 24-year-old came first in the regional WorldSkills competition representing Ultimo TAFE. He says he pursued a career in refrigera- tion and air conditioning because it combined electronics, engineering and physics. “It com- bines everything I am interested in and I like doing repairs,” he says. “I love the trade, one
CLIMATECONTROLNEWS.COM.AU
20