Narre Warren resident Chris Black is thrilled with his nomination as a finalist in the Victorian Apprentice of the Year award. 21183By Liesel Rickarby
AT 27 Chris Black thought he was too old to become an apprentice.
Now 30, and a finalist for the Victorian Apprentice of the Year Award, he thinks differently.
“I always thought of apprentices as 17-year-old boys,” said the fitting and turning apprentice from Narre Warren.
“I thought I was too old to be an apprentice at 27, but then I thought; why not? I’ll give it a go.”
Mr Black, who had always been interested in mechanical things, was working on the production line at Cadbury Schweppes when he saw a notice for a fitting and turning apprentice that said: mature age applicants welcome.
“I’d been doing shift work for six years and I needed a change. It turned out to be a really good change,” he said.
The change led him to a situation he never expected.
Now in his fourth and final year of Certificate III in Engineering (Mechanical and Trade) at Swinburne University, Mr Black has recently been employed by the university to teach second year apprentices.
He says he had no thought of teaching when he first started his apprenticeship.
“I had no idea. It was completely unexpected,” he says of his new position, which he feels cements what he has learned himself.
Though not his first award during his apprenticeship – he won Swinburne’s Best Third Year Fitting and Machining Apprentice Award last year – he is very pleased with his short listing for the Victorian Training Awards.
“It’s good to get a bit of recognition for the hard work I felt I’d been putting into it,” he said.
Skills and workplace participation minister Jacinta Allen congratulated Mr Black and said while working at Cadbury Schweppes his passion and dedication was widely recognised.
The winners of the 2008 Victorian Training Awards will be announced at a gala presentation ceremony on Thursday 21 August in Melbourne.
