A word from Royce Fairbrother

I'm pleased to be a guest on SkillsOne this week and I'm even happier to talk about something I'm passionate about: the trades.

I was recently honoured to receive the Ministers Award for Excellence for Commitment to Training in Canberra. It's not just a prestigious award, for me it recognises something that I love. Following this ethos has been the key to success.

My wife Thea and I started business life around 35 years ago as a simple partnership. We started doing odd building and construction jobs around the farms in Sassafras, Tasmania - a small rural community where I grew up.

From there we moved into the nearby town of Devonport and expanded into home renovations. We engaged our first apprentice in our third year of operation when our total workforce consisted of two carpenters and one labourer.

From renovations we moved into housing then gradually into the commercial and industrial building sector. Over a 15 year period we expanded and diversified into the mechanical engineering and refrigeration industry. Our company, Fairbrother Pty Ltd  grew to include that subsidiary company, Degree C Pty Ltd. We now also have a significant presence in regional Victoria through our recent acquisition of a respected Bendigo Construction company of Morey & Hurford.

Today we employ 460 people and I’m proud to say 82 of these are apprentices.

Since the very beginning our growth and success has been totally due to the quality of the people we have been fortunate to employ and train. Neither Thea nor I started with any special talents. I was an Apprentice Joiner who progressed to become a qualified Carpenter. Thea was a Dental Nurse. But we had the good common sense to surround ourselves with people who were a great deal smarter than we were!

We put our faith in them and gave them an opportunity to share in our success. Many of our key people today started as apprentices or trainees and have progressed to become our leaders. Without doubt that has been the most satisfying thing we have achieved from our time in business.

Whilst some employers may bemoan the state of "Generation Y", I have no doubt the quality of young people available to industry today is excellent. All they need is an employer who is willing to give them a go and put their faith in them.

Beyond teaching them their normal trade skills, as employers we need to play our part in helping them to develop the essential life skills they will need to build a successful life. We need to help them to build a sound character and teach them to dream big and develop a positive can do attitude. And we do that by the examples we set.

We must be the role models for them to follow. And employers who enthusiastically embrace this concept are, in my mind, making the best possible investment in the long term future success of their company.

Our apprentices are our future. Our apprentices of today are our leaders of tomorrow. How well we train them will determine the quality of our industries into the future.

Thanks to SkillsOne for giving me the chance to tell you our story this week,

Royce Fairbrother