Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education Geoff Lee congratulated Nelson Florimo from Long Jetty on being named Apprentice of the Year and Samuel Heffernan from Wagga Wagga on taking out the Trainee of the Year award.
“Nelson’s dad, Greg Florimo, was an outstanding rugby league player and Nelson was following in his father’s footsteps until serious injury forced him to give up the game aged 18 and that led him to discover a passion for carpentry,” Mr Lee said.
”Nelson demonstrated leadership qualities throughout his apprenticeship beginning with the construction of a Newcastle light rail stop.
“In the third year of his apprenticeship, he was part of the leadership team on a $4M aged care project after the foreman left, and later on a $9M project for which he was also the ‘face’ of the construction site,” Mr Lee said.
Nelson said he was “drawn towards construction” early on in life.
“I knew I wanted to build things since I was a kid. The carpentry apprenticeship just felt right and I set my goals right from the start,” he said.
Mr Lee said Trainee of the Year award winner Samuel Heffernan was such an outstanding sports education trainee that the Catholic Education Office in Wagga Wagga offered him a teacher support role when he completed his traineeship.
“Like Nelson, Samuel displayed outstanding leadership skills during his traineeship in organising and running sporting carnivals for 32 schools,” Mr Lee said.
The NSW Training Award winners will now represent the state at the Australian Training Awards in Brisbane in November.
