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NECA Apprentice Awards
for Victoria’s top performers
By Michelle Robertson, Senior Media
and Communications Advisor
ESV congratulates the winners of the NECA
Victoria Apprentice Awards, which were
announced in Melbourne on 21 July.
The annual awards are available to fourthyear electrical apprentices or recent graduates
who have shown an outstanding commitment to
developing their electrotechnology career across
the academic, workplace and personal arenas.
Awards are given for industrial, commercial/
domestic and communications categories.
ESV award for
world class
gasfitting
apprentice
By Sam Zappulla, ESV Gas Inspector
Congratulations to plumbing and
gasfitting apprentice Dylan Di
Martino on winning ESV’s Outstanding
Achievement Gasfitting Award
for 2015.
Dylan, who is a student at Victoria
Polytechnic, recently took his plumbing
skills to the world stage at the international
WorldSkills SãoPaulo2015 in Brazil.
He received a bronze medal for his
efforts and is now recognised as one of the
In the Industrial category we congratulate
the State Winner, Winston Waters from Floyd
Industries. Runner-up is Luke Gladman from
NECA Education & Careers.
Congratulations to Ashley Hammond from
Appselec Pty Ltd, State Winner in the Domestic/
Commercial category. The Runners-up are
Dale Horne from Appselec Pty Ltd and Ryan
Schumacher from Nilsen.
Keiran Mayers from NECA Education
& Careers received a special commendation
in the Communication category.
Guests at the ceremony heard an inspirational
world’s best young plumbing apprentices.
Dylan was surprised at his success
and said Victoria Polytechnic played a
major role in making him a world champion.
“Plumbing teacher Jeff Crole was very
supportive and encouraged me to enter
the competition,” said Dylan.
“I thought he was dreaming when he
said that I had a good chance of going far.
“I had no idea that I would go as far
as I did. I think this reflects on the
commitment of the staff and the quality
of training at Victoria Polytechnic.”
The WorldSkills São Paulo 2015
competition is important in promoting
vocational skills. This was the first time
a competition such as this was hosted
by a Latin American city.
It was the largest WorldSkills
Competition ever held with nearly 1200
competitors from 59 member countries
traveling to Brazil to compete.
Faces of the future: State award winners Winston
Waters, Luke Gladman, Ashley Hammond, Dale
Horne, Ryan Schumacher and Keiran Myers with
guest speaker, paralympian Dylan Alcott (front).
address from Dylan Alcott OAM, an Australian
wheelchair basketballer and tennis player.
As a member of the Australian Rollers,
Dylan was the youngest ever wheelchair
basketballer to win gold at the age of 17 at the 2008
Beijing Paralympics. He will represent Australia
in wheelchair tennis at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Dylan spoke about his amazing sporting
achievements and his passion for life, and ESV
staff were thrilled to hold his Olympic medals.
Ashley Hammond features on the cover
of this issue and you can read more about her
experience as a female electrician on page 14.
ESV Gas Inspector Sam Zappulla presenting Dylan
Di Martino with his Outstanding Achievement
Gasfitting Award at Victoria Polytechnic.