I had always worked in managerial administration role until four years ago when I applied for a Communications Paraprofessional Apprenticeship/Traineeship. As of this week, I have completed Communications Apprentice/Trainee within the Townsville Communications team. As a Communications Paraprofessional, my role includes installation, testing, maintenance, repairs and commissioning of communications equipment on the Ergon Energy and Powerlink networks such as radio, SCADA, multiplexing, optical fibre, radio, IP in Ergon Energy and Powerlink substations and assets.
Personally, my husband and I are involved with bull riding and team roping (rodeo disciplines) and we both enjoy camping, holidaying, water skiing and snow boarding.
Experience at EIT
As part of my apprenticeship, I completed an Advanced Diploma in Communications, Networking and IT with EIT. For the most part, the content in the course was applicable to the work I do which made the course more valuable to me.
There were challenges with working full time, working remotely (with little internet access), home commitments and running out of time for assessments but our Learning Support Officer was very flexible, supportive and understanding of our needs. I was fortunate to do this course at the same time as a few of my colleagues so we provided additional support to each other even though they were based in different locations.
The Moodle site provided a one-stop space where we were able to access all the information we needed including the webinars.
The lecturers were knowledgeable in their fields. The stand out lecturer for me was Brian Hobby. Brian was extremely helpful, responded to queries quickly and always gave constructive feedback and direction.
I was completing my apprenticeship while studying my Advanced Diploma with EIT. I was able to apply the information I learnt while studying to my everyday work and this education helped me to understand the systems that I was working on. We are increasingly working with IP systems and the modules that covered in this area helped me in understanding how the systems I work on operate.
EIT in the workplace
In terms of career advancement, I believe my overall score of 96.52% contributed to me being successful in securing a full time position with the group I’ve been working with during my apprenticeship.
Recently I was offered a full time position as a Communications Paraprofessional with Ergon Energy so over the next 5 years I will be applying my education from my diploma to our protection systems, SCADA, IP systems and radio network. As technology evolves so quickly, I will be in a role where I will be constantly learning and training in new things. In terms of education, in the future I would like to complete more study in the field of electrical and engineering. As for my career, I look forward to a long and rewarding career with Ergon Energy.