Armed with hands-on skills

A BERWICK horticulture apprentice learnt some new tricks of the trade during a recent visit to Singapore.
Benjamin Carter works at Haileybury College in Keysborough and received a Skilling Australia Foundation scholarship for excellence and leadership.
The trip was designed to provide the hands-on skills that apprentices need to land and keep jobs – skills they’re unlikely to glean from a more traditional classroom setting.
“Having unrestricted access, seeing all these amazing sites first-hand, and meeting all these experienced landscapers, rather than just being talked to in a classroom, was amazing,” Benjamin said.
“The biggest eye-opener for me was the lack of tools and resources available in Singapore.
“But, the landscapers are still able to get the same result as us in Australia – it might just take a little bit longer.
“I’ll definitely use some of their techniques in my day-to-day work, particularly when it comes to planting trees.”
Benjamin visited the award-winning Tanah Merah Country Club and one of the oldest nurseries in Singapore, Prince’s Landscape.
The Prince’s team and Nature Landscapes staff showed Benjamin some of their projects, and he attended the Singapore Flower and Garden Show and toured Resort World Sentosa.
He’s enrolled in the Certificate III Turf Management (Sport) course and has worked at Haileybury College for about 18 months.
He was recently named the most outstanding first year apprentice at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE.
Benjamin received a Skilling Australia Foundation scholarship for excellence and leadership, funded by The Percy Baxter Charitable Trust and the Eddy Dunn Endowment through the Perpetual Foundation.
The not-for-profit Skilling Australia Foundation regularly offers merit-based scholarships to fund short study trips, for students who demonstrate a high level of academic achievement, leadership skills, and other outstanding abilities or have contributed to the community through their chosen profession.