Terrence laying a career to be proud of

Terrence Hill is laying a tiling career to be proud of with TAFE Queensland. A proud Western Wakka Wakka, Iman, and Yirandali man, Terrence is a third year tiling apprentice studying at the Acacia Ridge campus and says working on major, high-end projects such as Queen’s Wharf gives him a sense of pride when talking about his career to friends and family from his small town in North Queensland.

“In my town up in North Queensland there weren’t many tradies, so I didn’t really see many people that I could follow their career. You don’t see many Indigenous tilers either, so I feel like I can be an example to friends and family of tiling as a career for them too,” Mr Hill said.

“I moved down to Brisbane to find an apprenticeship, and since getting one I’ve loved it. Especially working on Queen’s Wharf, I’m proud when I tell people back home that I helped build that landmark.”

“I love meeting different people, working with all different people in my trade. It’s good when you come to TAFE too you get to find out what work other tilers do and how it’s different to what I’ve done.”

Terrence’s teacher Grant has been a driving force behind an on-campus project to create a mosaic of elements of TAFE Queensland’s Reconciliation Action Plan artwork “Connecting Knowledge – Connecting Cultures” which Terrence said he loved seeing in the training area.

Tiling teacher Grant Job working on the mosaic.

“Like I said there aren’t many Indigenous tilers around that I’ve met, so it’s cool to see that artwork on campus and it’s a really good example of technical tiling as well.”

Proud of his career and looking forward to earning his trade qualification, Terrence makes sure he talks about apprenticeship careers to his friends and family, particularly younger people starting to think about careers.

“I try to show them that they can become an apprentice and have a trade career, and talk to them about my experience and what I like about tiling and the projects I’ve been part of,” he said.