More Rewards For A Good Job

9 December 2008

James Treganowan from Regional Appliance Service, Fairy Meadow, was recently named as the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) Apprentice of the Year.

While Treganowan is no stranger to awards nights - this year alone he has been a regional winner and a state finalist for Apprentice of the Year at the NSW Training Awards, and was also named Regional Apprentice of the Year: Domestic Appliance Servicing at the Illawarra Vocational Training Committee awards - he says the AIRAH award was quite a big deal.

"It didn't sink in how big it was until I was sitting at the table and directly opposite was one of the other apprentice finalists, and he was over from Perth," he says.

"When you can enjoy your job and be good at what you do, it's nice to get that recognition.

"We're used to people being recognised for their sporting achievements, but there's not always that many opportunities for people to get recognition for the work that they do."

Treganowan completed the second of his trade qualifications, in refrigeration and airconditioning, on Melbourne Cup Day, after finishing his appliance servicing course last year.

Treganowan's interest in the industry was sparked by going out on jobs with his father Bruce, who is also a refrigeration and airconditioning technician.

"From a young age I was going out on service calls with my dad," he says.

"You'd come out somewhere and you'd see that people were happy that something had been fixed - like when you go the the doctors and you get better, you get a good feeling.

"I couldn't wait until I was out there with the tools doing the same sort of thing - making people happy. You go out to people who have been inconvenienced in some way and you get a lot of satisfaction out of fixing things and making people happy."

While his father was an obvious role model, Treganowan also credits his mum for helping him achieve the success he has had.

"Mum always told me when I was little that if you want to be good at something there are three things that really matter: love what you do, work from the heart, and work hard, and then you can do anything well," he says.

Treganowan's long-term aims are to own his own business one day, and also to become a TAFE teacher and pass on his skills to a younger generation of apprentices.

"Next year I'm looking into university," he says.

"I want to get into a postgraduate vocational education course at Wollongong Uni.

"As an apprentice I've had a lot of success. I've had to work hard for it but I've enjoyed doing it.

"I'd like to help other people do that.

"If you've got a trade, you've got skills you can always fall back on and you'll never be short of work.

"There's a skills shortage at the moment, people are crying out for tradespeople - it's a good option."


Back to News Index | Back to Home