AppVic-Andrew-video

Andrew Bamblett, Carpentry Apprentice:

'Hi, my name's Andrew Bamblett, I'm a third-year carpentry apprentice, currently employed by AGA, but working on an RIA project.

I started later in my life with my apprenticeship, and before that you know, I didn't have any experience with tools and stuff like that, but there's always room for leaming, doesn't matter how old you are if you're lucky enough to get something like I did, just sort of run with it and, and make the most of it.

So my brother, he'd sent me an email in regards to the LXRA course that went for a week, and then ended up at Mernda rail, and at the end of it I just sort of jumped up and, you know, just sort of said that I appreciate having to go through that course to sort of open my eyes to the industry.

My boss, the big boss, he came and sort of said to us 'what do you think about an apprenticeship' I said yeah, like, I want to hang around, so that was probably the - probably one of the better things to come out of, you know, the work that I was doing beforehand.

The whole working on the rail, compared to someone that works in domestic, there's totally different, totally different ballgame. Being inside, and working around all, you know, all the big machinery, and different trades and stuff, like, yeah, it's a total eye-opener.

I think the best part of the job is working around the guys I'm working with picking up, you know, how they work and then trying to adjust that to upskill myself and then, you know, become qualified at the end of the job.'

Updated