David Cragnolini and Phoenix Ah-Toon
Phoenix Ah-Toon is the MTA Institute Apprentice of the Month for August 2022.
The 21-year-old is in the third year of his automotive refinishing technology apprenticeship with Allspec Coatings, a subsidiary of waste management company J.J. Richards Engineering, and is proving to be, according to his supervisor David Cragnolini and MTA Institute trainer Alfio Rotolone, a highly skilled employee who is always trying to improve his skills and learn new ones while bringing precision and speed to his work.
These are useful abilities and traits to bring to his job and the environment at the J.J. Richards Engineering depot in Yatala, south of Brisbane, where Phoenix is based.
The huge facility is where the company – Australia’s largest privately owned waste management company – builds its waste disposal trucks. The trucks, either Scanias or Volvos, arrive at the depot in basic form, without a body or any of the necessary hydraulics or other fitments. Those elements are fabricated and constructed on-site at Yatala, with the body going through the huge Allspec Coatings workshop for sandblasting and painting before being joined to the truck. It really is an impressive set-up.
The Allspec Coatings division numbers four employees, including two apprentices, and working here has given Phoenix the opportunity not only to learn the painting trade, but to get other tickets too, including his forklift and dogman (someone who is qualified to work on moving loads using overhead cranes and hoists) licences. While he has yet to work in the huge sandblasting booth, that also is something he is looking forward to being trained to do.
It’s been an interesting three years for Phoenix who, at age 19 and after working for a while in retail, began to search for an apprenticeship role. Uncertain what that might be, he reached out to Busy At Work, who put him in touch with J.J. Richards. It was a great call.
“I’ve always enjoyed working on cars and doing them up, that was my hobby, and I definitely enjoy what I am doing now,” said Phoenix. “And I feel like I am slowly getting better, and I am always looking to improve.
“That’s what I like – that there’s always different ways you can improve. It’s not going to be the same thing every time. I like that I am in the booth, but also outside of it I am setting things up and getting stuff ready for people and so on.
“And there is also the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve made something look that good when its painted,” he added. “That’s especially true of the refurbs that we sometimes get. They can arrive looking pretty bad but then you sand it, get it all painted, and then it looks pretty mint going out.”
The painting work at Allspec Coatings is a little different from the regular automotive set-up. The trucks are rugged and put through hard work, so the painting is more industrial in nature than the norm, enabling Phoenix to learn different painting techniques, including gravity fed, pressure pot, and airless processes.
For the automotive-style painting training, Phoenix attends scheduled days at the MTA Institute workshop. Training with the Institute, whose delivery model for instruction in most cases is on-site at the student’s workplace, has been, Phoenix said, a great experience.
“It is good. Alfio gets to see what we do and how we are progressing, as well as work with us on the modules directly,” he said. “That one-on-one training definitely helps you focus and concentrate more.”
With perhaps only a year left before he completes his apprenticeship, Phoenix said he isn’t looking past the opportunity that working for J.J. Richards has given him.
“I definitely feel there is a lot they can teach me,” he said. “It’s a huge company and there’s lots going on. I definitely want to progress further here.”
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (September 2022)
12 September 2022
