HAMILTON residents Harry Clark and Isaiah Mulley took home top awards at South West TAFE’s annual Trades Awards night on Thursday.

Mr Clark, who works at Hamilton’s Moose Engineering won the Fabrication Engineering Apprentice of the Year, whilst Mr Mulley took home the Plumbing Apprentice of the Year for his work at Hamilton’s Tim Wilken Plumbing.

Mr Clark said he was pretty chuffed and has been flat out at trade school in Portland doing extra work and courses to get himself ahead and it was nice to see some recognition.

“Also seeing that the previous winner last year was from work made me a little hungrier,” he said.

“I was in a really good class and everyone was pushing each other to keep up and get as much out of trade school as you can, and I also managed to win the Andy Kinnear Commemorative Award which was pretty special.

“I wasn’t expecting to win anything, but I found out a couple weeks ago and kept it pretty quiet.

“The work I do at Moose Engineering is mainly fabricating and welding – whether that’s farm machinery, automotive parts or basically anything else made of metal that needs to be altered or repaired.”

Mr Clark said that he would like to thank his boss, Brett McCallum, for putting him on as an apprentice, everyone at work who has supported him, his parents Darren and Leesa, and his trade school teachers.

More than 290 people attended the awards night to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of students across automotive, carpentry, cabinet making, electrical, engineering and plumbing trades.

The Plumbing Apprentice of the Year, Isaiah Mulley, said he was really happy to receive this award and it was great to look back and see where it started compared to where he is now.

“It has got me thinking about where I see myself in the future,” he said.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting it and was really surprised when they told me I had won it and it never even entered my head that I could be in the running for something like this.

“At Wilken Plumbing we do a large variety of work, one day I might be on the roof, the next I could be under a house or out on a farm and we do a lot of farm water systems which I really enjoy.

“I’d like to thank the Wilken family for giving me the opportunity to do a plumbing apprenticeship and for the support Tim and the guys give me and also Mum and Dad for getting me to trade school and back before I had my licence.

“To see my work, get recognised, means a lot to me. The teachers at trade school are great and I appreciate that they saw the hard work I put in too.”

South West TAFE chief executive, Mark Fidge, said it was so important to recognise the skills of these students in the region.

“Awards like these highlight the amazing things our trades students and their employers are doing in our own community,” he said.

South West TAFE head of building, construction and smart technologies, Chris Lawlor, said he was pleased to be able to reward and recognise this year’s apprentices for their hard work.

“It’s great for the apprentices to hear about the achievements of each of our top award winners and be inspired to continue to achieve outstanding results,” he said.

As well as awards for the top students in each year level, commemorative awards were also presented to outstanding students dedicated to their trades.