12
Feature
story
Power and passion
NECA’s Apprentice of the Year
in the Commercial/Domestic
Category, Ashley Hammond,
spoke with Alison Aprhys about
her career so far and life as a
female electrician.
When Ashley Hammond’s boss told her
he was going to enter her in the NECA
Apprentice of the Year awards, the 27-yearold admitted she had not even heard about
the competition.
But while the awards may not have been on
her radar, a passion for all things electrical had.
Ashley’s knowledge, expertise, approach and
professional attitude to her studies and work saw
her beat a cohort of similarly talented apprentices
to take out first place in the Commercial / Domestic
category, including her Appselec Pty Ltd
colleague, Dale Horne, who took second place.
“When he told me about the awards, I went
online to research them,” she said with a smile.
“As part of the entry I had to write an essay
on my future ambitions as an electrician. I thought
‘I’ve just qualified and this was my ambition to date’,
then suddenly I was on stage winning the award
and thinking ‘how did my life take such a spin?”
Sparking a career
Ashley, who qualified in March this year, may
have come late to her apprenticeship but she’s
more than made up for time with her determined
and capable approach.
She said there was never any question that she
could study a trade once her mind was made up.
“All the males in my family are tradespeople
and I used to help out my dad who was a bricklayer,
to earn extra money for Christmas,” she said.
“At first I was tossing up between joining
the police or going to university and being a PE
teacher, because I definitely did not want a 9–5
office job.”
However, it was not until she was traveling in
the UK several years ago, that Ashley was inspired
to take up the tools.
“I did not know what I wanted to do, so went
traveling to England to work out what career
Ashley, on site at The Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology (RMIT) in August, said her experiences
as a female apprentice have been “very positive”.
I wanted and came back determined to be
an electrician,” she said.
“Doing a licensed trade appealed as I like
to be self-dependent, so I sat down and thought
about what I could do as a female, and I tossed
up between plumbing and electrical work.
”Once the decision was made, Ashley
undertook a pre-apprenticeship course at
Chisholm TAFE.
“But I found it difficult to get a job, so then
I went through group training through NECA,”
she said.
“The practical training was great and all
the course work was interesting.”
About halfway through her time, Ashley
realised she loved the challenges of working
out how to solve problems and create strong
solutions.
“I realised towards halfway through my
apprenticeship I liked being in charge and
the decision-making process,” she said.