We asked Mia Goss, Electrical Apprentice at Visy Board Smithfield what a day at work looks like. Here’s what she had to say:

Every day I work closely with our qualified electrician who shows and trains me on a range of jobs. I have a number of tasks I carry out regularly like repairing equipment. This trolley car had a fault, so I isolated the equipment and carried out a circuit inspection to fix it.

I enjoy getting stuck into difficult tasks and replacing outside lighting is one of them. Working at heights is just another daily requirement that I’ve gotten used to in this job.

You can’t take short cuts or compromise when it comes to safety — one of our core Visy values. I always follow the lock out, tag out (LOTO) safety procedure.

Later on, I assisted with the replacement of our site’s Vass rail system. This system carries our mains power supply from our transformers to our corrugator and all of our convertors.

While I spend most of my time in the plant, I also do work around the site including in the admin office to install new power outlets and ethernet points.

In the afternoon, I carried out an inspection of the motor brushes on our Ward 3 convertor. I identified that the brushes were worn from the indicators and then replaced them.

While working and learning on the job, I’m also completing TAFE modules each week. I am working towards a Certificate III in Electro Technology. I have 41 months or 3.5 years left until I finish. Eventually I want to be a qualified electrician.