Zane Brown’s life is falling perfectly into place.
School’s over, he’s got his license and his dream job is secured.
“It’s all just falling into place, which I love,” he said.
The 18-year-old has been finished year 12 for a while now, with him the first to finish up at Greater Shepparton Secondary College back in September.
For his final years, he decided take a different path, choosing to study the VCE Vocational Major in Year 11 and 12.
Always having an interest in doing a trade, Zane sparked a love for becoming an electrician, choosing to undertake his pre-apprenticeship in electrotechnology as part of his vocational major.
“I got into a class of 12 or 15 of electrotechnology, cert two that I finished this year,” he said.
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve been wanting to look for an apprenticeship when I finished school.”
After searching around, he came across Watters Electrical.
“One day, I just went in, put my resume in... so I was on a list of about 250 people that wanted to be apprentices at Watters,” he said.
“I got an email a couple months later saying I was in the next stage.”
Interviews, tests and nerves await as Zane eagerly anticipated his future, but it wasn’t long before he got the call.
“I missed the call,” he said.
“I was at work, so I just called them back as soon as I can, and it was one guy saying ‘do you want a job at Watters?’
“That’s the first thing he said to me.”
Zane can’t be more excited to start his apprenticeship with Watters. Out of the 250 that applied, Zane was one of the lucky seven who were accepted into the four-year apprenticeship in Shepparton.
“I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of my shift,” he said.
“I was driving home (after work) with my mum, and I didn’t want to just flat out tell her, I like surprising people.
“So I was like ‘oh, do you know anyone at Watters?’ and she’s like ‘no’, so I was like ‘well, you do now’ and she nearly jumped out of the car with excitement.
“I couldn’t wait to get home to tell everyone. I was really excited because it felt like my life is now starting.
“I’ve worked on this for two years, doing a pre-apprenticeship, and it’s now falling into place.
“On December 9, I went in there, got the contract, got everything, talked with everyone else and had a walk through Watters, and it was just a really good experience.”
He said to anyone considering doing an apprenticeship to do a pre-apprenticeship through Tafe, a pathway in which he credits to Natalie from Geared4Careers.
“Geard4Careers, they helped me with all my school, basically since Year 9,” he said.
“They helped me with a resume, helped me get my apprenticeship and helped me figure out my career.”
Zane is set to begin his four-year apprenticeship on January 21, 2015 and couldn’t be more excited to get started.