Apprentices combine valuable life skills with first stage of their careers

Kane Doull, 18, like many of his mates on the NSW South Coast, didn’t know what he wanted to do when he left school.

He did have the marks for university but knew he didn’t want to be stuck in an office all day.

“I was finishing Year 12 at Narooma High,” he said, “and I spoke to my mum and dad about what I wanted to do and Dad mentioned apprenticeships with Essential Energy – so I thought I’d have a crack.”

Not only did he start his powerline worker apprenticeship in January this year, he combined it with other skills that, at best, can help save lives, and at least, make sure he doesn’t blow his pay packet.

Kane is part of the Lifeskills program which helps apprentices learn the skills to navigate work, financial, family and friend-related stress.

Essential Energy has partnered with Tradies InSight, a mental health and wellbeing organisation supporting tradies in regional NSW, to deliver the program across its organisation.

Tradies InSight founder, Bruno Efoti said many apprentices were school leavers who needed help when it came to making sound life decisions.

“I am passionate about creating safe spaces to learn new skills in dealing with the modern pressures tradespeople are under,” he said. “We don’t do feelings well in Australia and it’s well past time that changed.

“We developed a five-point checklist that helps people look after their mental health better so by the end of it, we really hope participants are more confident and competent in being able to look after their mental health.”

Kane, who travels to Goulburn to complete his training, said the Lifeskills program had helped him, specifically in his often dangerous work.

“There are a lot of challenging factors in this job,” he said. “They have lots of measures to keep you safe but when I watch the guys who work on live power lines and with heavy machinery, it is a real eye-opener.”

He said it was also interesting to see how the program worked with older employees on site, people “who tend to keep things more bottled up than we do”.

“Our generation tends to talk more about things whereas they don’t, so with this program, I reckon it works for us both.

“It’s also really helped me with the financial side of things. I mean when you start earning money, you don’t want to stuff it up for the future. They’ve told us about things like salary sacrifice and building your super which I hadn’t really thought about before.”

He said the mental health aspect was also important. “We’re more comfortable talking about it these days, and that filters through to some of the older apprentices.

“It also means there’s always someone to talk to if you’ve got a problem.”

Naomi Eccleston, a mature-age apprentice powerline worker from Yass, said the program reinforced issues facing apprentices in any trade.

“When you wake up in the morning, you either wake up with a smile on your face or a frown,” she said. “Everything comes down to attitude and how you perceive things, and mental health and wellbeing is a big part of that.

“Being able to talk about our mental health or our finances all just links in with our day-to-day learnings of our apprenticeship, so I jumped at the opportunity to do it.”

Essential Energy’s apprenticeship program is accepting applications until 23 June.