This article is about Keith Yardley who at the time was a second year apprentice in refrigeration and air-conditioning hosted to Direct Engineering in Bunbury.
Keith won the Allan Robert memorial prize for the Best country apprentice in his first year of training.
The award ceremony was held at the Novatel Hotel in Perth in front of a lot of industry employers.
Keith went on to complete his apprenticeship and work as a tradesman for Direct Engineering for another 12 months.
Keith’s first passion was electrical and he then got direct indentured with a Bunbury company and completed a 2 year electrical apprenticeship.
At the end of that apprenticeship he was 21 years old and dual qualified.
Keith went on and applied to Rio Tinto and was picked up by them at the end of his electrical apprenticeship. He continued to work for them for nearly 11 years mostly FIFO. He did however relocate residential to Karratha for 3 years from 2014-2017.
Keith moved his family back to Bunbury in 2017 and now is working FIFO for BHP."

Article provided by ATC Field Officer Tracie Yardley