The brave choice to retrain has come with rapid success for Connor.

Just months into a full-time electrical engineering course at NETA Training, he is one of five NETA students to secure an apprenticeship with Sembcorp.

Due to start work as an operations apprentice next month, he said: “I am ecstatic. I have never really worked in a position that could offer so much opportunity to work my way up the ladder and progress.”

Trying out a few different courses after leaving school, Connor struggled to find the right one for him. He said: “I wasn’t that interested and didn’t enjoy them, and just wanted to get into work.”

Since then the 24-year-old has had a number of different jobs in factories and even transporting wind turbine blades around sites.

“I have never known what it was I wanted to do, to be honest,” he said. But his roles seemed to increasingly move towards an industrial environment.

Deciding it was time to find a career he could progress in, Connor decide to take the plunge and return to full-time education.

“I like working with my hands and fixing problems,” he said. “I was looking at the trades and electrical was the one I decided to go for.”

Hoping to eventually find himself an apprenticeship, he never imagined the perfect opportunity would come along so fast.

“My family knew I was going back into education to try and start a new career, but no one could have known this opportunity would be on the horizon,” he said. “I think everyone was quite shocked and thought it was amazing.”

Now Connor said: “I am looking forward to getting to grips with the hands-on work. I learn best when I can watch someone and then have a go myself.”

No stranger to a heavy industrial environment, he said: “I have seen shipping vessels that have made me feel like an ant, so I feel ready for working on site.”

Describing the apprenticeship opportunity as, “a breath of fresh air”, he added: “I went on to the NETA course hoping to get an apprenticeship as quickly as possible, particularly because of being one of the older people in the group.

“With the pandemic and everything that’s gone with it, I didn’t expect to get an opportunity this fast or this good. I am over the moon.”