Success Stories

Apprentice Carpenter

"I wanted to study carpentry because I liked the idea of seeing the end result of what you have built and knowing how to do it..."

Carpenter

"I also like the idea of earning money while you are learning the skills that can keep you employed forever and you can travel overseas and use your trade to get you work..."

Apprentice Carpenter

"I always wanted to be a carpenter because I liked the idea of being able to make something with my hands..."

Apprentice Tiler

"After I finish my trade I want to open up my own tiling business and work for myself. It will be really good to see the smiles on people's faces after I have done some work for them..."

Self-Employed Builder

"My father was a carpenter and cabinet-maker. I loved woodwork at school, and did work experience with a builder mate. He offered me an apprenticeship when I was 16..."

Independent Builder

"I first wanted to be a carpenter after seeing a friend of my parents who did some work on our house. I had admired his work..."

Business Manager

"My first qualification was in office administration at a business academy. That helped me get a job with a big window manufacturing company. I did all the office things - following up jobs, checking job sheets and doing general clerical work - and other interesting things like technical drawing, too. My dad was a plumber, so I guess building is in my blood!"

Trainer

"I loved woodwork classes at school, and I dreamed of doing a job I really loved. I decided I wanted to do things with my hands, and I wanted to be a teacher one day, too..."

Business Owner

"I've spent the past 30 years in the industry, having been first apprenticed as a bricklayer and later taking on a second trade as a carpenter..."

Apprentice Carpenter

"I have always liked carpentry because you are working outdoors and you can take pride in seeing what you have built at the end of the day..."

Business Owner

"I got my start in the construction industry by completing a four-year apprenticeship as a carpenter..."

Director, Multiplex Constructions

"I started out in this industry as a builders labourer, just doing the general digging and unloading and carrying of materials to assist the builders on site..."

Building Surveyor

"I did my carpentry apprenticeship in the early 1980s and worked as a builder, but chronic hayfever meant I had to get off the tools. So I went back to college to be a building surveyor. Since then, I've worked with councils, with the state building authority and now with the Master Builders' Association of Victoria..."

Barclay Mowlem Group

"I had always wanted to be a builder. I started out as an apprentice Carpenter/Joiner and in those days it was a five-year apprenticeship so it took a bit longer to complete..."

Chairman and Managing Director

"I started my career doing an apprenticeship as a carpenter. When I finished my apprenticeship I continued with some post-trade study and then was given the opportunity to become a leading hand tradesperson. I progressed on with my career to become a supervisor..."

Training Manager

"I did my apprenticeship in solid plastering, and set up my own plastering business. When my kids were born, I decided on a change of pace and went off to teach plastering..."