Tasmania’s Apprentice of the Year Ben Barker on overcoming adversity to achieve his goals

His young life has been marked by tragedy, grief, and adversity but Ben Barker hasn’t let his difficulties define him and is now in the running for a gong at a prestigious national award ceremony.

Tasmania’s Apprentice of the Year Ben Barker works as a diesel mechanic with Veolia at Cambridge. Picture: Alastair Bett/Skills Tasmania

After overcoming significant adversity and personal hardship, 20-year-old Tasmanian diesel mechanic Ben Barker is inviting young people with learning difficulties to seek him out for support and advice.

Mr Barker was recently named Tasmania’s Apprentice of the Year and is now automatically in the running for the national gong at the Australian Training Awards in December.

But getting to this point hasn’t been easy for him.

“Growing up, I had a little bit of a rough upbringing,” Mr Barker said.

Tasmania’s Apprentice of the Year Ben Barker works as a diesel mechanic with Veolia at Cambridge. Picture: Alastair Bett/Skills Tasmania

At 14, he lost his mother to suicide and was taken in by his grandfather, Vynn, due to his father being absent from his life. Together the pair bonded as they tinkered with classic cars in the shed downstairs from their small apartment, which increased the young revhead’s love for all things on four wheels.

“When I bought my first four-wheel-drive at 17, I ended up pretty much just pulling it apart into bits and pieces with Pop and with my mates just to kind of work out how everything worked and understand it,” he said.

“I just ended up falling in love with it.”

Mr Barker struggled at school due to his dyslexia. It wasn’t until he started a Certificate II course at TAFE when he was in Grade 12 that his world really opened up for him.

Harnessing his passion and dedication, Mr Barker finished a four-year apprenticeship at Veolia in Cambridge in the space of just two-and-a-half years and is now a qualified tradesman, taking on leadership roles in the workplace.

Tasmania’s Apprentice of the Year Ben Barker works as a diesel mechanic with Veolia at Cambridge. Picture: Alastair Bett/Skills Tasmania

He said the key to his achievements was “self-belief” and a willingness to ask for help when he really needed it.

“For anyone going through school who has learning disabilities and doesn’t feel like they fit in, there is support around them. That’s the hardest thing – asking for help, asking for support,” Mr Barker said.

“A lot of kids don’t want to be that student who has to ask for help with certain things, and it is really important that they do or try and find a way within themselves that they can learn.”

Mr Barker said he wanted to be a source of support for Tasmanians with dyslexia; someone they could seek out for guidance.

“I’m trying to set myself up in a way that younger kids with dyslexia or [who are] not even feeling like they fit in, or even kids that are excelling and they might want to go down the way of an apprenticeship, I want to be a familiar face that someone can talk to,” he said.