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SKILLS
MEET MATT MACDONALD Former vehicle painter and trainer, Matt Macdonald has recently moved into the role of Student Success Officer for the MTA. To understand how he got to where he is today, he reflects on his careers journey and shares his experiences in the automotive industry. As a young fella, I was always on the go – I never sat still. I loved being out the back with my Dad, helping with yard work, building, and washing the family cars. Dad may say different – I more than likely made more work for him! School back in the 80’s was still very “old school” even for that era, the support may have been available, but not like it is today. Or maybe it was, and I was too ashamed to ask for HELP! Throughout my schooling, I found ways to distract other students and teachers to hide my learning difficulties, like being the class clown. I had lots of friends, but couldn’t read or write. I must say, school for me was more social; it filled the time between the weekends, rather than being a learning environment. At the beginning of Year 12, I’d had enough and wanted to leave school. Mum and Dad told me, “the only way I was leaving, is if I had an apprenticeship”. Sure enough, I was determined to leave, so that’s what I did. Before leaving school I had myself an apprenticeship as an Automotive Refinisher (Painter) at Dunn’s Panel and Paint. I started my apprenticeship in January 1996 and did a full 12 months on job before starting trade school. The best part of trade school was that, because it was something that I had an interest in, I found learning fun. I met some
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great people, and we had some great banter between us, which made the time there enjoyable and memorable. Looking back to when I completed my training, there wasn’t anything in place to identify language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) issues or any support if a student had a problem. I strongly believe that we at the MTA do an outstanding job to identify these issues, and have the right support in place to assist our students to achieve their full potential. I qualified in 2000 and moved on from Dunn’s to Champion Crash Repairs as I wanted to focus on light vehicle crash repairs rather than heavy/industrial repairs. The two years following my apprenticeship set me up to be the tradesperson I am today. My blocking, application and attention to detail was as good as anyone I was working with. I left Champion Crash to chase money at another crash shop, which didn’t last long, but as they say “as one door closes, another opens”. Being that I had a paint background, I was lucky enough to land a job on the mines in Moomba, blasting and coating gas and oil pipe lines. If I didn’t have the skills and knowledge on preparing substrates and paint application, I wouldn’t have landed the job.
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