Commercial Industrial Plumber
As an apprentice commercial/industrial plumber, Ned Robinson has done his fair share of dirty work. "There are always those jobs with plumbing like unblocking urinals or cleaning sewer pits that aren't much fun,'' he says. "We go round with the tradesmen and if someone's got to get down and dirty, it's usually the apprentices.''
But he says these jobs are the only real down side to an otherwise rewarding profession. "It's not that bad. [The tradesmen] have all been there before,'' he says. "It's tough going but rewarding. It can be a hard day but once you're finished, once you've completed a job, you're pretty happy.''
Robinson, 18, is six months into his apprenticeship with Atlantic Plumbing, a company that does maintenance and repair work on commercial and industrial buildings in Sydney. He says the sheer size of the sites they work on means the jobs can be extremely complex.
"When things are bigger it means a lot of problems are harder to find,'' he explains. "When there's a leak, the pipes could be anywhere in a large building, so there's a lot of trial and error to find them. If there's a roof leak you've got to track the pipes and check the different rooms until you find the problem. You need to have patience.'' Robinson is confident that doing this work early on in his apprenticeship will give him a professional edge further down the track.
"A lot of the guys say if you can do that kind of work, you can do the residential work,'' he says. "They say it's one of the hardest fields so I'm pretty glad to be doing it.'' Through his job, Robinson also has the opportunity to see some different sides of Sydney.
"You get to go to lots of places that most people wouldn't have access to, like the rooftops of high rises in the city. You get some pretty nice views up there,'' he says, adding that there is a good balance between indoors and outside work in commercial and industrial plumbing. "I prefer the work outside but it's good to have a mix.'' Robinson attends TAFE one day a week, where the Certificate III in Plumbing and Services gives him practical and theoretical skills he can apply to the job -- and also helps him to hone those skills.
"You have about four to five hours of practical and three hours of theory each day you're there,'' he says. ``At the moment they've got us mainly doing welding and stuff that you wouldn't do on the job yet because you can't get it wrong.'' Before starting work, Robinson also contemplated going to university but says he is happy with the decision he made.
How to be a ... commercial and industrial plumber
Study for a Certificate III in Plumbing and Services while completing an apprenticeship. More details: contact the Master Builder's Association, 02 8586 3555 or www.mbansw.asn.au
By Aimee Brown, The Daily Telegraph, July 8, 2006.
