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Riverina team to compete for Golden Trowel Award

Home pageCommunityTAFE NSW Riverina Institute • Riverina team to compete for Golden Trowel Award

15/09/09

Two students and a teacher from TAFE NSW Riverina Institute will travel to Bathurst next month to compete in the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia Golden Trowel Awards.

Bricklaying Teacher Glen Kilpatrick and two apprentices, Zack Philpot and Rhys Scott from Wagga Wagga, will compete against teams from across Australia to contest the coveted title.

Every second year, the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia NSW invites TAFE Institute’s and other bricklaying colleges in Australia to take part in the two day biennial event.

“The Golden Trowel Awards encourage excellence among apprentices and recognise the skills of young people,” explained Mr Kilpatrick who has taught bricklaying at Albury Campus for the past 10 years.

The students selected to form part of the Riverina Institute team are of the highest calibre. Both are second year bricklaying apprentices, who have already demonstrated their excellence and dedication to their industry.

20 year old Zach competed in the Riverina-Murray Regional WorldSkills competition last month, and says he hopes the experience of competing will help with the upcoming competition.

“The competition puts a bit of strain on you trying to get everything done in the timeframe, but it was good practice leading up to the Golden Trowel,” said Zack.

Zack will following the footsteps of his host employer, Wagga Wagga’s  Terry Cronin who entered in the Golden Trowel as a TAFE student some 20 years ago. 

“My boss is pretty proud of me – he was picked to do it when he was at TAFE.  It’s a great opportunity to develop your skills for sure – and to see what standard everyone else it up to and see if you can improve to be better than them,” added Zack.

As a second year apprentice, Zack is looking forward to competing in a team event.

“It will be different working as a team with Glen and Rhys as it will give me a chance to work with people that are at a higher level skills-wise than I am.”

18 year old Rhys also competed in the recent Riverina-Murray Regional WorldSkills competition.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty good experience and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Rhys. “I heard about the Golden Trowel and how hard it was to get into it so when I got selected I was pretty excited.”

Rhys’ boss Daniel Cronin is proud of Rhys achievement, saying that he has included Rhys in all elements of the business to ensure he knew as much as possible.

“It’s a great honour that Rhys has been chosen, it’s a good competition and something different for him to try his hand at.”

The 8th Biennial Golden Trowel Award will take place in Bathurst on 21st and 22nd September.

 

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