Ben Woods wins Tait Scholarship

Ben Woods has been selected as the first recipient of the Sir Angus Tait Memorial Scholarship in 2010. Ben is an apprentice with Adelaide-based Tetracom, an ARCIA accredited member. This award is administered by ARCIA, on behalf of contributors Tait and Westwick-Farrow and is intended to encourage a student to actively pursue study leading to a career in radio communications engineering at an Advanced Diploma level or higher.

Before joining Tetracom, Ben worked at Harvey Norman as a computer technician but decided that RF was far more interesting and applied to join Tetracom as a trainee RF technician. He started with Tetracom in September 2008 and completed his traineeship at the end of 2009 with the results of four distinctions, two credits and two passes.

After discussing Ben’s career path, it was agreed that he would progress to a full apprenticeship, which he began at the beginning of 2010. He is continuing to receive good grades and has become an integral member of the service workshop team. He has now adopted a keen interest in radio communications beyond his role at Tetracom.

For the first time this award has been made outside of Melbourne. There are now three awards available around the nation annually, thanks to contributions from Westwick-Farrow Media, Tait Radio Communications and ARCIA, who administers the awards.

Trainees and apprentices can be nominated for the award by contacting info@arcia.org.au.

Meanwhile Tait remains dedicated to founder Sir Angus Tait’s passion for education and is ensuring students who also have a passion for radio communication have the support they need to succeed.

Brett Smythe, Tait’s managing director, says, “With significant growth in the Asia-Pacific region we need apprenticeship programs to ensure that we can attract and retain and nurture top technical expertise.”

The company’s latest apprentice, Ryan McCabe, graduated with honours earlier this year with a Certificate III in Electro Technology Communications. Tait's Brisbane office is now beginning the recruitment process for a new apprentice.

In addition to the apprentice role, the company has also started a global training initiative. The Global Technical Development Program is an extension of Tait’s former New Zealand-based Technician Development Program, but now trainees have been recruited across the four Tait regional offices.

Tait’s initial plan was to recruit one trainee per region, but such was the calibre of applicants for the Asia-Pacific role, two roles were appointed for the two-year program. The two trainees, Ryan McCabe and Ashwin Dinkar, will mean that Tait’s engineering expertise will continue to prosper long into the future.

At the end of August, Ryan and Ashwin began their two-year training that will see them learn everything from product support to the more advanced network systems engineering. Ashwin, like Ryan, has had previous education and graduated 2009 with a Bachelor of Engineering.

The company’s technical development program will begin with a three-month initial training program in the company's global head office in Christchurch, after which they will then return to their regional base in Brisbane to complete two years of on-the-job training.

The TDP involves an on-the-job training program that allowed trainees to gain the practical experience and skills they need to develop their technical competence.

Tait will recruit for another to join the program in 2011.