At the start of 2021, Monaro High School Year 12 students Jack Newson, Blake Quick and Fletcher Jones were not sure whether they wanted to finish high school. They considered dropping out of school after year 10 to pursue trade apprenticeships.
“The boys probably wouldn’t have finished high school if it weren’t for the program,” said Monaro High School principal James Armitage. “They don’t understand it now, but they will understand the importance of the decision to stay until Year 12 in 10-15 years’ time.”
Monaro High School Year 12 student Fletcher Jones is taking part in a new training partnership between Snowy Hydro and TAFE NSW.
Newson, Quick and Jones are part of a group of seven students from Monaro High School who have been selected to participate in a new training partnership between Snowy Hydro and TAFE NSW which allows high school students to work on the Snowy 2.0, a renewable energy expansion project in southern NSW.
While the three students had little experience in trade work before their traineeship, Jones believes that the skills he develops working on Snowy 2.0 will be invaluable in his future career.
“As soon as I could, I was going to leave and take an apprenticeship. But this is a big deal. It seemed like a good opportunity to get the best of both worlds,” he said.
Quick said the program had offered a great learning experience. “School kids don’t really get these opportunities,” he said.
The students will do a traineeship with TAFE NSW and their study and paid work experience will be credited towards their Higher School Certificate.
Quick believes that working on an important project in high school has developed his maturity.
“I’ve had to learn a lot of different skills and become a lot more mature,” he said. “We’ve been doing a bit of everything out there, so I’ve got a lot more knowledge of everything that happens on-site and the processes.”
