The Australian Apprentice of the Year Award recognises the most outstanding Australian Apprentice in Australia.
Western Australian Jared Stone has experienced the options VET can present once you step on its career path. That path has already won him the Australian Apprentice of the Year Award at the 2015 Australian Training Awards.
If not for a suggestion from a school career advisor during Jared’s Year 11, his future might not have been as bright.
“I didn’t have great experiences of school, didn’t have a plan and soon found myself dropping my tertiary subjects. But I enjoyed being a drummer with my band, so when the career advisor suggested doing a VET qualification in music I left school and went for it.”
When he reached the sound production subjects, Jared was fascinated by the electronics and undertook a pre-apprenticeship course in electrotechnology.
One of 12 candidates selected by Western Power from 750 applicants to join its apprentice program, Jared completed his Certificate III theory studies during his second year, so during the third year of his apprenticeship he also completed a Certificate IV in Engineering (Instrumentation). He is now a fully qualified electrician with Western Power and is part way through his Advanced Diploma of Engineering.
Jared had never won anything (“not even a raffle!”) before he was awarded Western Australian Apprentice of the Year and become a finalist at the Australian Training Awards.
“It’s massive,” he says. “It shows me I’m on the right education path for my life-long learning journey.”
“VET provides excellent support mechanisms. I had amazing mentors — I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of other people.”
For Jared, as well as bringing together passionate, highachieving people in different fields, the Australian Training Awards is important in showing industry, which may be outside the VET system, what VET can achieve.
Jared has also become an Australian Apprenticeships Ambassador, a role he’s looking forward to.
“Life is a two way street, and my challenge now is to inspire others to believe in themselves as much as I’ve been helped to believe in myself.”