Award winner backs trades

“Get out there and get a trade” is the message Looma lad and plumbing apprentice Jeremiah Green, who has just won a national apprenticeship award, wants to send to Kimberley youth.

The 21-year-old Nyikina-Mangala man is just a year away from finishing his apprenticeship, and when he does, he plans to return to the Kimberley and ultimately start his own plumbing business in Looma, where he may train other young people in apprenticeships.

Having left his community earlier on to complete school in Perth, Mr Green said he was not fazed by having to go to Melbourne in 2009 to start his apprenticeship.

“But a lot of other young people from the communities have never been away from family and it’s hard for them to leave,” he said.

“My message is: get out there and get a trade, you’ll be rewarded. There is a lot of money out there if you get on and do something.”

Mr Green is completing his apprenticeship through the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, while working for Cooke and Dowsett, a company he said had also recently taken on some Broome apprentices.

He said he has enjoyed learning “how everything works”, especially roofing work and sanitary plumbing.

Mr Green was presented with the Master Plumbers’ and Mechanical Services Association of Australia’s Indigenous Apprentice Award for 2011 at the association’s Gold Medal and Training Awards last Tuesday night in Melbourne. One of 12 awards, it is offered to the top indigenous apprentice to encourage apprenticeship studies in all areas of plumbing.