Butcher - retail
When Cheralyn Darcey began applying for a butcher's apprenticeship as a teenager 27 years ago, she was knocked back about 30 times by various employers.
How times have changed.
In 2003 when Darcey tried again after her two children had almost finished primary school, she was accepted into an apprenticeship on her first try.
"The attitudes towards women in trades are a lot different to when I was 15 or 16 back in '79,'' she says.
"People were just not willing to take on a woman in a non-traditional trade. I found that out first-hand, the 20 or 30 times I tried. Most people would laugh at me or ask why I wanted to do this, and I had to justify why I wanted to do it as a woman.''
Landing an apprenticeship two decades later was much easier, she says.
"I got a job part-time in a butcher store and I told the fellow who had just bought the store I was interested in an apprenticeship.
I worked there for two weeks and he said, 'Yep, I'll take you on as my apprentice'.''
But going back to study at age 38 was not as easy, she says.
Starting a Certificate III in meat processing (meat retailing) at TAFE NSW was the "scariest day of my life,'' Darcey says.
"It was sickening to me. You ask my husband. I was shaking getting into the car in the morning. But it was fun in the end. Big fun. By lunch time I was chatting with everybody and having a great time. It was just like new kids at school.''
The support among her fellow students helped her get through the course, she says.
"I was absolutely blown away. We were a team the whole time we were at [TAFE]. We learned from each other. The staff really help you out as well.''
Darcey now works as a retail butcher.
"I make sausages, make the window displays in the morning, serve customers and clean of course,'' she says.
"There's always tonnes of cleaning to do in a butcher shop.''
Darcey's interest in butchery originated from growing up on the land.
"Half of my upbringing was in the country and we actually used to butcher our own animals at home. It used to fascinate me - not in a macabre way - breaking down the carcass and making it into edible meat parts. For me it's a part of cooking.''
Darcey has also taken out the 2007 apprentice of the year award and the 2007 Woolworths award for excellence in butchery.
Since finishing her apprenticeship only a few weeks ago, Darcey has started at a new butcher's, Belrose Quality Meats, after her old boss decided to sell.
"When I came up to the end of my apprenticeship my boss was looking at selling the shop and I was actually offered a lot of jobs,'' she says.
"I never thought in a trade that you would get head-hunted for a job.''
Love your work
How did you get into your job? I applied for the job at the butchery and I had to go to TAFE to do the course.
Upside? Meeting people and the creativity in preparing the end product. And the pay is really good.
Downside? The cleaning and the long hours sometimes.
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