Page 24 - Climate Control News Magazine June 2022

NextGen 2022
Mohanned Bilal Rashidi is a 20 year old tech- nician based in Port Hedland in Western Aus- tralia. He didn’t know the refrigeration and air conditioning trade existed when he left school. He did six months work experience at Tec Ser- vices and was then offered an apprenticeship.
“I love how broad our work is we do a lot of dif- ferent things and its very mechanical which I en- joy,” Bilal said.
“I am also about to sign up for my electri- cal training license I want to do as much as possible.”
Bilal wants to be exposed to both the HVAC and refrigeration side of the business to be an all-rounder. “I want to be able to do everything,” he said.
First year apprentice, Emma Rogers, always had an interest in all things mechanical.
“I was like that from a young age and knew when I was in high school that I would do a trade,” she said. “My older brother is also doing an apprenticeship so it gave me an idea of what I should expect.” The 19 year old joined Cool Cats last year.
“I haven’t stopped learning it is great. I knew I
wouldn’t deal with an office job or being in one spot all the time,” Emma said.
“My goal right now is to finish my apprentice- ship and then I will start thinking about what I will do next.”
Airvision technician, Darcy Sexton, is happy to let everyone know that refrigeration and air conditioning is the best of all trades.
The 23-year-old chiller technician enjoyed his
“WORKING WITH CHILLERS IS THE BEST PART OF THE JOB.”
apprenticeship from day one. Darcy heard about the trade through family friends and was drawn to how varied each day can be.
“It encompasses so many things, I could be brazing copper one day, doing electrical work the next and then another day I could be on a laptop analysing data,” he said.
“There is a lot of thinking involved and it defi- nitely keeps you busy.”
Darcy has encouraged his girlfriend’s younger brother to take up the trade.
“I am so glad I work with chillers that’s the best part of the job,” he said.
ABS Air Conditioning & Sheetmetal Services Pty Ltd technician Byron Smith said no two days are the same for tradies working in refrigeration and air conditioning.
He said the job is so varied there is no time to get bored.
“Every day I do something different,” he said. Byron has just completed his apprentice- ship as a technician and is now studying to be an electrician.
He began his first trade at the age of 16 and by 2024 will be an electrician as well. Byron is hard at work getting his qualifications in order to en- sure he has more options long term.
Byron was lucky he had family members that were already in the trade so he made up his mind at an early age.
First year apprentice Holly Stynne was intro- duced to the refrigeration and air conditioning
CLIMATECONTROLNEWS.COM.AU
It helps to be mechanically minded as some tasks can be challenging.
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