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Volume 14, Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Kaitlyn Noll, Aboriginal Learner of the Year, with her award and Katrine Hildyard MP.
State honour for Kaitlyn T
here mightn’t be too many Aboriginal female boilermakers out there, but Roxby Downs’ Kaitlyn Noll is smashing stereotypes and winning awards along the way – and loving it.
Miss Noll, 20, was named the Aboriginal Learner of the Year at the South Australian Adult Learners’ Week Awards last week, an honour she said she was “surprised” to receive. “I wasn’t expecting to win at all and I’m very shocked and surprised and overwhelmed about it,” she said. Employed by CEG and hosted by Mine Tech Engineering locally, Miss Noll is in her second year boilermaking apprenticeship after developing an interest in the career during a pre-vocational course through Roxby Downs Area School and TAFE. “I started pre-voc at school, I wanted to be a diesel mechanic and then I started welding and was really interested in it,” she said. “My TAFE lecturer thought I was quite
good at it and said to me, ‘why don’t you take the boilermaker’s career path’? “At first I didn’t really want to, but then I started doing it more and thought ‘Why don’t I just give it a shot?’ and now I love it.” While Miss Noll’s passion for her job and the industry are obvious, it’s also her tenacity and drive that has impressed CEG Roxby Downs Branch Manager, Tony Butson. “I nominated her because she’s doing really well, and I’m absolutely so proud (of her),” Mr Butson said. “Kaitlyn did a Certificate II in Metal Fabrication at high school, and then she left school and was working in a bar. “But she never gave up, she never stopped trying to get a job and Mine Tech Engineering said they would give her a go and that’s been awesome.” Working in a traditionally male-dominated field, Miss Noll is a positive role model both for females and Aboriginal people, Mr Butson said.
“If you look throughout the whole of Australia, there would be few female boilermakers, and even less Aboriginal female boilermakers. “I have said to her, from now on you will be a role model – she’s breaking ground.” Based in the Mine Tech Engineering workshop on Callana Road, Miss Noll is also getting valuable experience both underground and on the surface at BHP Olympic Dam. “She was recently on-site for six months and her manager said he’d have her back anytime,” Mr Butson said. While her short-term plan is to complete her apprenticeship and obtain her boilermaking qualifications, Miss Noll has big plans for her future. “I’m hoping to start my welding inspecting course and training next year, my third year,” she said. “When I finish my apprenticeship I’ve still got to do a bit more training to be where I want to be because I want to be a welding in-
spector and supervisor, and eventually I want to travel around the world and end up working on submarines welding underwater.” Miss Noll thanked Colin Grantham, her Roxby Downs TAFE lecturer, for his support. “(Colin) is the one that got me into my boilermaking; and also (thanks to) my two bosses Matt Glasser and Tom Glazbrook from Mine Tech Engineering, and Tony Butson, my CEG employer.” Adult Learners’ Week is an annual celebration of community and individual learning, with the week’s awards recognising outstanding individual achievement and acknowledging the importance of the adult community education sector. A social enterprise project from Oodnadatta, which provides up to 20 Aboriginal women with an opportunity to learn how to set up and manage their own hand-made arts and crafts enterprise, was named Adult Learning Community of the Year.