Sinead powers up facilities for future apprentices

Sinead Mann's pre-apprenticeship course led her to an exciting appreticeship.

TAFE Queensland pre-apprenticeship courses are designed to give students the basic understanding and skills required to hit the ground running in an apprenticeship and stand out to employers as an attractive apprenticeship candidate, and there are options available for a wide range of industries.

Sinead completed the 11-week course after deciding she wanted to look at a career in trades and saw that the electrical pre-apprenticeship was starting soon at her local TAFE Queensland campus. She hasn’t looked back since enrolling, and says the course gave her just what she needed to secure employment.

“We did a lot of training in general industry health and safety, how to use tools, and other basic skills which I didn’t know before the course, so the Certificate II definitely helped me get ready for this apprenticeship,” Ms Mann said.

Now employed by large commercial business RPE QLD as an apprentice, Sinead is enjoying working on large-scale projects including many schools and hospitals, and is currently working on the in-construction Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing Centre (RAMC) on the TAFE Queensland Eagle Farm Campus.

“It’s great, we work on lots of schools so it’s cool to say to family members ‘hey you should send my niece there, I worked on that building!’”

Like many upcoming tradespeople, Sinead doesn’t see her training stopping at the end of her apprenticeship. Having spoken to her colleagues and done some research into different areas of specialisation in her industry, Sinead is eying up post-trade training in Programmable Logic Control (PLC) skills at TAFE Queensland.

“I’ve given some thought to once I finish my apprenticeship, I’ve looked into the PLC courses because that seems like an interesting part of electrical to specialise in. I want to keep training so that I can be a specialist, not just a general electrician,” she said.

The Instrumentation - Programmable Control Systems Skill Set (UEESS000135) is offered on the very campus Sinead is currently working, and may be delivered in the new facilities she is helping build in the future.

Sinead is one of a number of apprentices employed on site to construct the new TAFE Queensland facility, including her colleague and fellow Free Apprentice for Under 25s recipient Chelsea Roberts.