Sam Walter

Age: 25
Occupation: Relief plant operator/construction leading hand.

Working with big machines is a family affair for Sam Walter. During school holidays he worked in his father's earth moving and construction company. One of his goals in life is to be in a position one day to carry on the family business.

After completing Grade 12 Sam joined the company as a labourer determined to learn the business from the bottom up.

This was a job that involved digging holes, laying pipes, helping the plant operators and tradespeople and cleaning up.

Wanting to qualify as a plant operator, Sam enrolled in the Certficate III course in Civil Construction (Plant) offered by a registered training provider in 1997. This was a three year course balancing technical instruction with on the job training.

"It was a very good course. We learnt the basics such as occupational health and safety, laying concrete, using small plant and equipment and laying pipes and then worked up to operating the big machines such as excavators, front end loaders and graders."

Once he successfully completed the course Sam's new qualification was recognized at work with a promotion to the position of plant operator. He spent two years operating excavators and backhoes on civil construction sites such as road and bridge works.

" I am currently a construction leading hand. At the moment we are working on a new subdivision at Kingston putting in the roads and services. My job as leading hand is to basically manage what happens on site. This means that I assume responsibility for the men and machines and the work that has to be done.

"I am also a relief operator. This means that if one of the plant operators on my site calls in sick or is needed elsewhere then I can jump on their machine and make sure that the project keeps on going.

"It's a great job. I love being outside and I particularly enjoy moving around from job to job. We do jobs all over the state.

"I reckon I've got about another 10 years or so working with the machines on site. Then, I hope to move into the management side of the business perhaps doing something like a Front Line Management course to help me along the way."