Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Chisholm TAFE

Mr EDBROOKE (Frankston) (09:53): It was a real honour to attend the amazing Chisholm Education Awards gala dinner on Thursday, 2 June. Congratulations to all finalists and winners. You did yourselves proud. Congratulations also to Stephen Marks and Stephen Varty from Chisholm for organising and hosting a wonderful evening. Also hats off to the magician and mentalist Dr Vyom Sharma, who was ridiculously amazing. He had the entire room of people trying to figure out his performance.

Huge and heartfelt congratulations to my mate Will McCallum, who was awarded the Chisholm Institute Apprentice of the Year last week. Will is an amazing role model to everyone around him, especially his siblings, LJ and Oscar, who both played pivotal roles in his recovery along with his partner, Bella, and family members. Will was in his third year of a certificate III in engineering, fabrication and trade apprenticeship when he had a really bad motorcycle accident and had to have brain surgery. It was a long road to recovery for Will, with six months on the couch until he was ready to get back to work, and thanks goes to an understanding and accommodating boss in Dean Gianginis, who runs Dean G Fabrications. Despite the setbacks, Will excelled at Chisholm, even asking for additional theory work to complete in his recovery, and he ended up finishing his apprenticeship ahead of time in two years and eight months. Thanks to the wonderful teaching staff at Chisholm and a special thanks to Rod Bensilsen. When, during his award acceptance speech, Will was asked what he would take away from his training and what he would pass on to other people his comment was, ‘Hard work pays off’—wise words from a young bloke who truly knows and appreciates their meaning.