Snapshot 2

Brenton the Builder is a school based apprentice

On some school days over the past two years you could find high school student Brenton Pearce hard at work on building sites around the NSW Central Coast. As a ‘school based apprentice’, Brenton spent one day on-site, one day at TAFE — and the remaining school days at school, working towards his HSC. He also spent a considerable amount of time on weekends catching up with maths and other subjects, but he feels it was all worth it.

In fact Brenton has already won a number of awards and prizes for his efforts: he holds the 2008 NSW School Based Apprentice of the Year award (with the prize of $1500 plus a laptop), and runner up Australian School Based Apprentice of the Year in the prestigious Australian Training Awards held in Darwin last November. Earlier last year he’d won $500 as one of the state finalists, and the 2008 Central Coast School Based Apprentice of the Year award.

However even more impressive than this long list of awards is Brenton’s proven commitment to his future career and how he managed the demands of his education, work, training and skills development.

His host employer was Greg James from Hotondo Homes, a large Australian home building company. Greg had employed other apprentices through the Housing Industry Association (HIA), but Brenton was his first school based apprentice.

‘When I left school there was nothing like this — you felt you had to either go to Uni or just drop out of school,’ Greg said. He feels that young apprentices ‘learn to work with people, get good life experience,’ in addition to gaining valuable skills on-the-job.

Brenton attended St Peter’s Catholic College at Tuggerah. He was a ‘bit of a pioneer’ at the school — as the first student to ask about school based apprenticeships, he showed a lot of initiative getting the program underway.

Because Brenton wanted to finish school as well as gain skills in building and construction, the school based apprenticeship program was ideal. Brenton is keen to learn his trade and earn money now, then go to Uni later (he’s interested in a degree in construction management).

‘School based apprenticeships are a great step for people who don’t want to close the door to years 11 and 12,’ said Brenton. ‘You can set yourself up for when you leave school — there’s definite work available – but you’re still leaving your options open.’