Dave's career change to shape the next generation

Dave Jenkinson had been working in the heavy commercial vehicle industry for 15 years when he saw a newspaper ad for trade teachers at TAFE Queensland: 18 years on he hasn’t looked back, completing the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAE40122) to be qualified to teach at TAFE Queensland and rolling on from there.

Completing his apprenticeship as a diesel fitter fresh out of high school, Dave’s career began at a civil engineering business working on a wide variety of plant and vehicles and attending training at TAFE Queensland.

Following his apprenticeship Dave moved into the environment and waste sector, where he again worked on a diverse range of vehicles across two businesses. This period was a steep learning curve for Dave culminating in experience with the engineering aspects of vehicles, building bespoke truck bodies from scratch at JJ Richards.

“I learned a lot in the waste industry. Especially building the trucks at JJ Richards, the various sides of heavy commercial vehicles from engineering to hydraulics, we made and tested all of that for those trucks and that was unique to that business,” Mr Jenkinson said.

Taking his first step towards management and mentoring apprentices, Dave then moved into a Service Manager position at a high-end dealership in Brisbane, where he created significant change over three years to improve the work standards and lower re-work rates.

“When I arrived there, there were no processes and the workshop was made up of mainly apprentices and trade assistants who didn’t have structured learning or opportunities.”

“I pretty quickly decided my main job was to get the eight apprentices onto a structured path through their training and making sure they could progress well, so that the workshop could improve its output.”

It was through this time that Dave found he had a passion for helping apprentices learn skills the right way and progress to become well-rounded tradespeople. With some background knowledge of TAFE teaching as a career based on his father’s experience, Dave was beginning to formulate a plan to shift gears in his career.

“My dad had been a TAFE teacher, so I had some understanding of what the job was. I was reading the paper one day and saw an ad for teachers wanted at the Mt Gravatt campus, and I just knew it was for me.”

Starting out teaching first year apprentices, Dave quickly learned how to manage classes and teach concepts to a variety of personality types. As he progressed in his teaching and the makeup of teaching teams shifter, he moved through to teaching more advanced subjects to apprentices in later years of their training.

“I had been teaching for a few years when a new heavy automotive training building was opened at the Acacia Ridge campus and we moved into that facility. Once we were there I started to learn about the systems and things like creating training programs, which would come in handy later in my career.”

By then a Leading Vocational Teacher, Dave was passing on the things he had learned to newer teachers and focussing on ways to make far-reaching impact on the training quality for apprentices.

Dave plays a pivotal role in TAFE Queensland's Heavy Commercial Industries training.

“I was really focused on improving our class management, making sure training aligned to what the industry needed, and using all of the equipment we had to its best ability.”

This made Dave an ideal candidate for his current job as Business Manager of Heavy Commercial Industries Training, which has seen him continue to mentor teachers at various stages of their careers and have wide-reaching influence on apprentices’ experience in their trade.

“I know I can make a difference to so many students and really give back to the industry by making sure all our teachers and all our training quality is as good as possible, and I really love that.”

“It’s crazy to think I’ve spent 18 years here, and often people ask him if I get bored of teaching the same things over again, but there is so much variety in our trade to teach, and anyway every single class is different. New students, new questions, challenges, ideas, it’s very rewarding and exciting and that has never gone away.”

TAFE Queensland teachers deliver educational excellence. Join our team and help encourage and mentor the next generation of trade professionals by completing the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAE40122).