Working hard … Keilor Downs resident Joe Lo Giudice is juggling work and school as he completes an apprenticeship aimed at furthering his career. 60851 Picture: NATALIE GALLENTI
By Natalie Gallenti
The 30-year-old is juggling work at the Mobil Refinery in Altona and an engineering mechanical trade apprenticeship at Victoria University in Sunshine.
Mr Lo Giudice said his decision to go back to school was simple.
“It’s restrictive being an apprentice, when I am a proper tradesman I will be able to do a lot of different jobs,” he said.
“It’s good to have a trade. It means job security, more responsibilities and better quality work.”
The hard worker is doing his apprenticeship under the TradeApps program at Victoria University.
TradeApps is VU’s response to the Government’s new competency-based completion policy that emphasises what a person can do in the workplace, instead of the time required to learn it.
The program begins with a comprehensive conversation between the apprentice, the employer and the institution to identify the skills the apprentice will learn at VU, and those that can be learned in the workplace. Then a training program is designed to provide flexibility, quality and balance between being on the tools and on campus.
Mr Lo Giudice said he was relishing the opportunity to learn more about his job, even though he had been in the industry for a long time.
“I’m learning lots of news things at school and I think people should give it a go if they’re thinking about it.”
