MEGT Apprentice Recommends Staying the Four Years

Sydney, Australia, October 01, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Working on cars, fixing mowers and anything else with an engine as he was growing up has paid off for Jonathan Richardson, who is now hired out by MEGT Group Training to Sydney Water, where he is doing his Certificate III in Engineering – Mechanical apprenticeship.

These days, Mr Richardson works on equipment that is large and complicated and involves a lot of problem solving and custom modification. Between the breakdown maintenance work at the North Head, Malabar and Bondi sewerage treatment plants and pump, pipe and reservoir maintenance at Sydney Water’s network maintenance operations division, everything he works on is large scale and crucial to maintaining Sydney’s essential water and sewerage services.

“I always really enjoyed North Head and working on the largest pumps: 1000 litres per second,” grins Mr Richardson. “To work on something so large and powerful is great fun.”

“My career tests showed I would be good at something practical,” he explains. This plus his interest in anything mechanical was certainly what inspired him to focus on and excel in his chosen career in mechanical engineering. Mr Richardson also recently represented Sydney in the national finals of WorldSkills Australia. Whilst not winning the finals, he immensely enjoyed the experience and the learning opportunities it provided and was proud to be nominated to participate.

His journey from school to a trade with MEGT has been overseen by Rhonda Moore, who acts as his mentor as well as Business Consultant with Sydney Water. Ms Moore has kept a close eye on his safety in the workplace as well as monitoring his training progress both at TAFE and in the workplace.

When asked what he would tell school leavers before they make a decision between attending university or doing an apprenticeship, Mr Richardson was quite frank about advising them that if they did leave at the end of year 10 to do an apprenticeship, they need to stick through the four years to give them a qualification, and then move onto another career path if they so choose.