Brad finds a bright future in plumbing

I had previously worked at a car dealership, but through the Covid-19 pandemic my hours were cut back, and with a young family to look after, I needed to look at a different career.

I knew Gerard and Leo Duynhoven at South West Roofing and after meeting with them, they employed me as an apprentice straight away.

Before starting work as a plumber, I didn’t realise how vast the trade was and how many different streams you could take.

I love that my work offers me great variety and every day is different. Not only do we do general plumbing work, but we also have the Stratco franchise which means we work on a lot of carports and pergolas.

We have a range of different teachers at South West TAFE and all have a variety of different backgrounds which allows us to learn new skills from each teacher to bring back to the worksite.

Being a mature age student, I was apprehensive about starting trade school and thought I wouldn’t fit in with the younger apprentices.

I’ve loved it though and they have all embraced me and given me the nickname “dad”.