Camberwell Rotary Club’s Annual Bert Stevens Apprentice Awards

‘In the 2005/06 Rotary year, our club established the annual Bert Stevens Apprentice Awards to honour our club’s revered charter member/tradesman of many skills, the late Bert Stevens.  Since then, in conjunction with the Box Hill Institute – Faculty of Trades (formerly known as Box Hill TAFE College), these awards have been made annually to two final year apprentices who were completing their apprenticeships and training despite personal setbacks and/or difficulties.  Each award has been to a cash amount sufficient to allow the recipient to purchase a suitable kit of tools for their trade.  In recent years, each award has been to the value of $1,500.  For the 2021 school year, $3,000 was forwarded to Box Hill Institute to allow these 2 awards to be presented. 

The two successful recipients for our 2021 awards are Timothy Hamilton completing Certificate III in Air-conditioning & Refrigeration and Zhuozend (Telfair) Li completing Certificate III in Light Vehicle Technology.  I was privileged to represent our club at a Trade Scholarship Recognition Event held at Box Hill Institute last Friday (12 November) when these and other awards were presented to their recipients. Unfortunately, Telfair Li was unable to attend due to illness.

 
A brief resume for each student follows: 
 
Timothy Hamilton
Certificate III in Air-conditioning and Refrigeration
Timothy’s nominator – Len Raines – Manager, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration
  • Large family of 11 siblings
  • Lives 150 kim from Box Hill which is approx. 2 hours drive
  • Presents well and is very confident of his own skills
  • Is active member of charity groups around the local area
  • Competing in the 2021 National World Skills competition in Perth
  • Works in a family business
 
Timothy, a 3rd-year air-conditioning and refrigeration apprentice, works with his father and is one of eleven children. After leaving school, Tim thought about an engineering career but soon changed his mind, as he loved all hands-on work and believed it would be better to have an apprenticeship in a trade for his future career plans. He enjoys fixing and building different things and one day hopes to complete an electrical apprenticeship to enrich his air-conditioning and refrigeration apprenticeship.
Tim is currently working on developing a software program for Supermarkets to monitor their refrigeration systems from home in his spare time. Tim explained that there is a severe gap in the market for this type of programming to support industry. He is a member of Rover Scouts and works with the group to raise money for the local community.
Entering Box Hill, Tim chose to do the best he could and acquire as much additional study and experience as possible. In his first year, Tim competed in the State World Skills competition and took out first place.   Winning the state award has led Tim to compete in Perth's National World Skills competition in August.
Tim's long term goals as a refrigeration and air conditioning mechanic are to get into refrigeration controls and develop new technology for the industry to help with monitoring critical systems.
Tim said, "the scholarship will mean a lot as I will put the money towards getting tools to help me in the trade and assist me to compete and do my very best in the upcoming National World Skills competition".
 
Zhuozend (Telfair) Li
Certificate III in Light Vehicle Technology
 
Telfair’s nominator – Mr. Hemstandis, Teacher
  • On time and punctual
  • Works well in class
  • Time to talk and assist other students
  • Very polite
  • Work delivered on time
  • Telfair, a 3rd-year automotive apprentice migrated to Australia from Shanghai, China, when he was 15 years old.  He attended Language school on arrival and then commenced high school in Adelaide but didn’t enjoy school or the homework as his passion was working on cars and motorbikes. He completed Certificate I and Certificate II in Light Vehicle and knew that his future career path would be in the automotive industry.  Jobs were difficult to find in Adelaide, so he moved to Melbourne when he was 18 without family or a stable place to live. He worked in a delivery role for 12 months.  After applying for many jobs, he eventually found an apprenticeship with the NGP Group at Mercedes Benz, Toorak, where he still works today.  Telfair’s dream is to have his own business specialising in servicing all different brands and types of vehicles.  Telfair said “this scholarship is a great chance to be recognized for how well I can be in the field”.  He would like to use the money to buy quality tools that he could use forever, as he explained, the tools are expensive to buy. ‘
     Ron Lear on behalf of the Vocation & Youth Service Committee
 
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