National Skills Week: career paths beyond the apprenticeship
Ever wanted to be a manager, a teacher, a business owner? These are all career options that can start with a trade.
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A trade can set a worker up for the rest of their career – but they do not have to do the same thing every day for 50 years.
There are many career paths available beyond the apprenticeship, from starting a business or becoming a manager or teacher, through to upgrading to a dual trade or combining practical and theoretical skills with a university degree.
TAFE Queensland SkillsTech general manager John Tucker says people often think tradespeople complete an apprenticeship then do that trade forever, but that is not necessarily the case.
“It’s becoming rarer,” he says.
“People move careers and might start as a qualified plumber and end up as a project manger or in other aspects of the construction industry or change entirely.”
Tucker, who himself started out as a chef, says one possible career path for a tradesperson is to become a vocational education teacher, passing skills on to the next generation.
“They can’t teach for us unless they have a trade background, that’s how I started in TAFE a long time ago,” he says.
Another option is to gain a dual trade, upskilling in a second area in a shorter amount of time by leveraging recognition of prior learning.
“We have a lot of automotive mechanical-qualified people doing a dual trade in automotive electrical, reflecting that vehicles are becoming more electrically focused,” he says.
“Electrical and refrigeration is often done as a dual trade, too.”
Similarly, tradespeople can take their practical skills into theoretical university courses and graduate with the best of both worlds – although Tucker says this does not happen as often as he would like.
“It should be more common than it is,” he says.
“University graduates would tell you that you would be getting a better understanding of (for example) mechanical engineering if you first understand (practical) mechanics.”
A more common choice for a qualified tradesperson is to start their own business.
The federal government’s Australian Jobs 2019 report shows 24 per cent of technicians and trades workers are self-employed, including 46 per cent of construction trades workers.
SkillsOne chief executive Brian Wexham says tradespeople can also use vocational education to gain business knowledge.
“We know many go on to set up their own businesses and are very successful at it,” he says.
“You might be a skilled carpenter or bricklayer or chef but you could go to a TAFE and do some business skills that enables you to run a business in a meaningful and profitable way.”
In the lead up to National Skills Week, which starts on August 24, SkillsOne has launched the Skills and Thrills Digital Parents Showcase.
The free online content is accessible until September 4 and covers topics such as industry trends amid COVID-19, the types of apprenticeships and traineeships available, and resources and support services.
For access, visit skillsone.com.au/digital-parents-showcase-subscription
NOT YOUR AVERAGE CAREER PATH
South Australian cabinet-maker Jason Hindes turned his vocational skill into a business and a silver medal.
The owner of Hindesbydesign studio workshop had a love for mechanical things since the age of five when we would build things with his grandpa.
By age 20, he had completed his apprenticeship and was set to compete in the cabinetmaking category at the WorldSkills International Competition in Birmingham, England.
“I sat on the lounge in my parent’s family home one day looking at TV highlights of Duncan
Armstrong’s swim in the Seoul Olympics when he won and the moment was so powerful to me,” he says.
“I was full of pride for Australia and imagined if I had the time again I’d want to do that.
“Competing against 22 other countries was humbling and to land silver under Austria and above Switzerland was surprising but I also felt I had prepared for this since I could walk.”
After the competition, Hindes spent a year working in the UK then returned to SA to set up his own business, Hindes By Design.
He also worked as a TAFE lecturer for seven years and volunteered for WorldSkills, training seven Australian competitors over 15 years and managing the cabinetmaking category as chief expert in Germany in 2013, Brazil in 2015 and Abu Dhabi in 2017.
THE WORLDSKILLS AUSTRALIA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP WILL BE HELD IN PERTH IN APRIL 2021, WITH A SELECTION OF WINNERS TO THEN COMPETE IN THE INTERNATIONAL EVENT IN SHANGHAI.
Originally published as National Skills Week: career paths beyond the apprenticeship