Challenging society’s misconceptions around trade apprenticeships starts in schools

Labelled as “not the best use of her academic skills”, Jeffery knew in her heart it was the right choice for her – and hasn’t looked back.

With National Skills Week taking place in the week of August 19-25, Jeffery is speaking up against the misconceptions and outdated myths around a trade apprenticeship being only for those with lower academic scores, part of the reason girls in particular do not follow this route.  

“It was very much an assumption, and if I’m honest, an internalised assumption as well as, that I was doing well, I enjoyed maths and physics and all of those kind of things, and so when I was looking at what I could do, I was only looking at university – I wasn’t even considering any other pathway,” Jeffery tells EducationHQ.

With her father himself a tradesman, he organised a week of work experience in Year 10 for his daughter in a local factory, but while Jeffery ‘loved it and thought it was awesome’, she dismissed it as a plausible option for her.

“It wasn’t until Easter of Year 12 and I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this anymore, there’s no hands on stuff, I’m going out of my mind here’, that I remembered the other pathway that I loved, that I dismissed because it didn’t involve university, and how that actually fits perfectly who I am – its hands on, it involves programming, challenging myself and problem solving and maths and all of that, and I thought ‘oh yeah!’"

Keen on manufacturing, Jeffery was encouraged to finished Year 12, which she did with an ATAR score above 90, however, importantly, she attended school for four days a week while labouring on the factory floor on the other day.

“…it was probably better that way, because by then I’d worked in a factory for six months, I knew what I was getting into, and so I stepped into my apprenticeship with the idea that ‘this is going to be great’.”

The apprenticeship was in Fitting and Machining, which involved a Cert 3 in Engineering – Mechanical Trade, and Jeffery ended up training in repetition manufacturing in an aerospace company.

“There was so much technical work I did there – coding and high precision machining – that required a large amount of skill and knowledge, not just heavy labour,” Jeffery, who has won several industry accolades including 2014 Apprentice of the Year, says.

Following seven years at the company, Jeffery says she missed “being a part of bringing through the next generation of tradespeople”, and so moved into a new role where she looked after four apprentices as an ‘apprenticeship master’.

From there, not long after, she was approached by Swinburne TAFE about a teaching opportunity and after several years teaching part-time while still working in her other role, eventually started full-time in 2020.

She’s now a senior trades educator and helps support 800 apprentices coming through the school. 

“It’s a fantastic choice for me,” Jeffery says.

“And the reality is, I haven’t actually closed down any of those other careers options. There’s no reason why I couldn’t go to university now.”

‘Game Changer’ is the theme of 2024 National Skills Week, which is dedicated to raising the profile and status of skills and vocational learning and showcasing the attractive career opportunities for all Australians. 

“In the field of aerospace manufacturing, there is currently only two per cent of females employed. There is no reason why this can’t be much higher,” Fitting and Machining qualified tradie Melinda Jeffery says.

According to a report quoted by Federal Parliament, 51 per cent of all current jobs in the country require a VET qualification. 

The report also found that despite the critical importance of VET to Australia’s economic security, many people hold negative perceptions of it and the careers it leads to.

It is often perceived as less intellectually demanding, inferior to university education, and more physically demanding. 

And while there has been long-time high demand for trades people, misconceptions about apprenticeships, even within schools by many careers advisors and teachers, remain.

Jeffery says there are a range of reasons for this, but one in particular she feels has widespread impact.

“I think careers advisors and parents often advocate for what they know,” she says.

“So careers advisors have come through a university pathway to go into teaching, and they’ve taken on the careers advice with some additional training, but what they know most strongly is the university pathway, so it’s easiest for them to keep advocating that to their students.

“So it’s like a self-affirming cycle, that they don’t know about apprenticeships and so they don’t advocate for them.”

While money isn’t a ‘be-all, end-all’ for any career choice, Jeffery says it’s certainly important, and financial security is another reason why pursuing a vocational career is an attractive option.

“I didn’t end up in debt to do my studies,” she highlights.

“I was paid to learn, and that’s given me opportunities to buy a home and start a family and all those kinds of things, perhaps earlier than other people in my year level have been able to.

“That’s certainly not to say it’s all about money, but I’m doing something I love, and it’s also enabled me to live the life I want to live – so that’s kind of great.”

Jeffery says while she has regularly gone into schools and spoken to students, it feels like a “drop in the ocean”.

“Even to be asked to go in is very rare,” she says.

“For starters, you’ve got to have a careers advisor who thinks it’s important to get a tradesperson out to talk to the students.”

Ever hopeful that schools’ career programs will improve, Jeffery advocates that “information is power” and hopes schools provide their students with quality work experience in Years 10, 11 and 12.

“…it wasn’t until I experienced it myself that I had any clue as to what was out there, and it still took me two years to figure out that’s what I wanted to do,” she says.

“It sounds simple, but if young people can be encouraged to research potential options and then find a way to have a go at it and get some exposure, then when they come to make their decisions, they at least have a little bit of an idea of what what they could do.”

As well, research shows that now more than ever, people’s careers morph and evolve and change more rapidly than at any time in the past.

“I wouldn’t have thought that taking on a trade would then prepare me to run an educational department, but that’s where I am, and I’m doing a very good job of it,” Jeffery says.

“So, you never know where it’s going to take you, but having a trade under your belt, no one can take it away. I could always go back to the tools if I wanted to…”