Page 19 - Climate Control News Magazine June 2022

NextGen 2022
A showcase of talented technicians
MEET THE TALENTED technicians that make up Australia’s next generation technicians for 2022.
NextGen continues to be an annual showcase of our best and brightest technicians under the age of 25.
This year’s Top 20 are profiled in the following pages (in alphabetical order) and provide a first hand account of why refrigeration and air condi- tioning is such a great trade.
CCN in partnership with the Australian Re- frigeration Council (ARC) is proud to present NextGen 2022.
Second year apprentice, Nicholas Bakopoulos- Cooke, describes refrigeration and air condition- ing as an all-encompassing trade.
“We do a bit of electrical work, chemistry and plumbing, there is a lot to learn,” he said. When the 22 year old technician joined Woolworths two years ago, he was familiar with the trade but didn’t know specifically about supermarket re- frigeration.
“I was looking for a trade but didn’t realise how interesting supermarket refrigeration would be,” Nicholas said.
“Even after I complete my apprenticeship I will continue to work in this area because it will take more than four years to be good at this job. It will take many years to learn everything.”
Jarred Budny is a former WorldSkills competi-
tor who has already made his mark as a refriger- ation and air conditioning technician.
He has won apprentice of the year at AJ Baker & Sons where he is employed and has also been a finalist for CCN’s Male Rising Star Award.
The 22 year old got into the trade by undertak- ing a pre-apprenticeship course at TAFE. While studying Jarred heard plenty of great stories about the trade. His cousin also became a tech- nician and had only good things to say about HVACR as a career.
“I DO REPAIRS, MAINTENANCE AND BREAKDOWNS AS WELL AS COOL ROOM WORK.”
Jarred enjoys supermarket refrigeration and wants to continue working in that area of the trade.
Perth-based technician Tom Clancy will be representing Australia later this year at World- Skills.
The Central West Refrigeration employee is only 20 years of age and has already completed
his apprenticeship. He began his trade at 15 years of age.
“My dad is a fridgie so I got in through him,” Tom said. He tried to do a school-based appren- ticeship while at high school but there were only three options and it didn’t include refrigeration and air conditioning. He could be a plumber, electrician or bricklayer.
Tom loves the trade especially with the intro- duction of Co2 systems. “Each one has to be diag- nosed differently, no two systems are the same,” he said. “We do commercial refrigeration so it is all big stuff that is hard to break even when you mess up.”
Jason Galea is enjoying his apprenticeship be- cause he gets to do different tasks every day. “It is a dynamic trade, it is never monotonous,” he said. “Each day I do something different and there is always plenty to learn,” the second year Woolworths apprentice said.
The 24 year old technician heard about the trade through friends and decided to do a little investigating on his own. “When I saw how broad the subject matter was I knew it would be inter- esting,” Jason said.
“Right now I do repairs, maintenance, break- downs as well as cool room work,” he said. “I am happy to continue working in supermarket re- frigeration after I finish my trade although in- dustrial work looks interesting as well.”
This is a job with plenty of variety, every day is different.
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS JUNE 2022
19