Fitting In

Although Ashley Belteky had no family background in vehicles, during her work experience she discovered an interest in things mechanical and, after finishing Year 12 with the second highest ATAR at her school and in the top five per cent of all Victorian students, instead of enrolling at university, she went on to an apprenticeship as a diesel mechanic at Cummins in Laverton.

Ashley completed her trade qualifications seven months early and received the prestigious Kangan Institute’s Inspirational Young Achiever award for 2019.

Once qualified, Ashley worked as an on-highway diesel mechanic, a FIFO mechanic at a remote Queensland coal mine for 18 months, ran her own local business as a diesel mechanic, and carried out field service repairs to earth-moving equipment in the construction industry.

Ashley’s current role is as a Women in Trade Mentor with Apprenticeship Support Australia, an organisation that facilitates relationships between apprentices, employers and trade schools.

“We support apprentices and employers to make the apprenticeship journey successful and with an increased focus on women in trade and the unique barriers they face,” Ashley says.

“My role as a Women in Trade mentor is to be the person who checks in with our apprentices and be a connection outside the workplace who is able to help if issues occur and to provide the support to overcome hurdles and challenges, and for them to stay in their apprenticeship.”

Oftentimes, Ashley notes, they are the only female tradie onsite or even in that particular business.

“We have a team of people who have experience, and they’ve all walked in steel capped boots and themselves were often the only females on site,” she says.

The organisation supports all trades and apprenticeship types including in the construction industry in trades such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters.

“We are fortunate to have the capacity to check in with apprentices,” she explains.

“And we don’t have to wait for them to reach out because things have finally reached a breaking point. In that way, we are proactive in our support and it might be we are having regular catch ups every few months to see if things are on track”.

Ashley’s own time as an apprentice and as a tradesperson allows her to have a special perspective.

For a time, she operated her own business where she was an employer, and she recognises the value of having a holistic picture.

Social media can play an important part in alerting potential apprentices to the opportunities the industry provides.

“It’s about creating visibility as early as possible, using social media and the role it plays for younger generations, our message has to be repeated over and over. We have to do the leg work to bridge the gap between them seeing something which they think might suit someone else, to the realisation the transport sector, and a trade in it, could be ideal for them,” she says.

“We are bridging the gap between knowing the industry exists to understanding how each individual could potentially fit in and thrive.”

In any workplace there can be challenges around an individual’s confidence, and Ashley draws from her own experiences in helping the next wave of apprentices.

“Even if the individual is a confident person, if they don’t have good role models in their workplace or in the wider industry, it’s a much harder journey,” she notes.

“It’s not just about ticking a box and having quotas for women, although the good thing about quotas is they encourage people to be more active in trying to attract women to the workplace, and once there they need to be treated as a person and gender shouldn’t be part of the equation. Having a better balance and a diversity of thought is always going to be better for our society and our community as a whole. And that’s at any level, if we’re talking politics or a small workshop which has five people”.

It’s widely recognised women have a reputation for being logical in thought when diagnosing mechanical issues and also as being more mechanically sympathetic when operating heavy vehicles and machinery.

“Reflecting on my own journey as an apprentice, there is a greater resistance to taking risks and making mistakes and I think that’s a reflection of societal conditioning,” says Ashley.

“As very young girls we’re praised for being responsible and being well-behaved and that’s not necessarily true for young boys. It has repercussions consciously or unconsciously in how we show up in the world and the workplace. It is valuable to have a person who is going to take less risks and make less mistakes, but with female apprentices we have got to make sure that doesn’t turn into a lack of confidence. Comparison to male peers might make them feel they are less valuable, when that’s not at all true from an employer’s perspective.”

A number of emerging programs are promoting an apprenticeship or trainee model for truck drivers.

“I’ve witnessed trainee programs, mostly in the bus sector, and I’ve had conversations in the context of construction in relation to excavator operator credentials, but it’s like getting a truck licence in just a couple of days,” she says.

“I obtained my non-synchro truck licence a few years ago and I’ve only driven half a dozen times since in a non-synchro truck. As much as I have the skill set, I don’t have the muscle memory and I’d need to take a couple of laps around the block before I take a non-synchro truck on a drive. The great advantage of apprenticeship systems is the fact you get the repetition and learned experience to help build confidence because you do have more time to learn and practice under mentorship. If that becomes a norm in industry it’s going to help.”

Despite the positive elements of her current role, Ashley occasionally still misses being ‘on the tools’.

“Some mornings you watch the sky turn pink and the sun is just coming over the silhouette of the landscape and I’m thinking ‘this would be the perfect morning to be doing a generator service on site,’” she says.

“There’s a special relationship with being a tradesperson which I think is taken for granted. Stepping away has been hard and I sometimes do miss it, but I’ve been fortunate to find a pathway in the industry that I’m passionate about. I can be nostalgic for my trade and I still tinker on things once in a while and that’s enough for me because I do enjoy what I do now.”