Kye Robinson is the MTA Institute Apprentice of the Month for February 2024.
The 20-year-old is in the third year of his light vehicle apprenticeship and works at BMAS Biloela, a business that delivers a wide range of services – including mobile repair and maintenance, parts and machinery supplies – to the many agricultural businesses in the central Queensland farming region, as well as regular light vehicle servicing and maintenance.
There’s little that BMAS Biloela doesn’t do, and that is reflected in the skilled staff that work there – two previous apprentice of the month winners have come from the BMAS workshop.
Kye joins that duo in making his mark, demonstrating, his employers said, ‘a level of commitment, technical expertise and passion that sets him apart . . .’
It is perhaps not surprising Kye is excelling in his apprenticeship. His grandfather built engines for speedboat racing and Kye, like his father before him, was always interested in that work and serviced and maintained his own cars. And while he entertained the idea of becoming a boilermaker or a fitter and turner, a mechanical apprenticeship was always Kye’s most likely career destination.
After moving to Biloela three years ago, Kye had concrete plans to pursue an apprenticeship after finishing Grade 12 at school. Things moved pretty quickly.
“About midway through Grade 12 I did a week of work experience at BMAS and then about two weeks prior to the following school holidays, BMAS asked if I wanted to come back for another week,” said Kye. “My ears sort of perked up at that and after I did that week, they offered me the light vehicle apprenticeship. I finished Grade 12 and about three days after finishing school I went straight to work.”
Working at BMAS Biloela sees Kye getting to work on a wide range of vehicles and machinery and given plenty of responsibility both at the workshop and out on the road delivering mobile servicing and maintenance. Those on-site visits can be rather epic – a 500km round trip to Rolleston is the farthest trip on Kye’s books!
“We are a tractor dealership – Massey Ferguson, Duetz-Fahr, AGCO and others – as well as a general maintenance centre, so we do everything from tractor transmissions to clutches – anything agricultural – as well as light vehicle work, a bit of plant, and trucks,” he said. “And I do quite a bit of my own thing. I have my own work ute and do a lot of field maintenance and repairs for the agricultural side of things.”
Since starting his apprenticeship, Kye has been training with the MTA Institute, but other training opportunities have been plentiful as BMAS works to upskill its staff to offer its customers the best quality service.
“There are lots of learning opportunities at BMAS,” said Kye.
“For example, next week I am going down to the Gold Coast for a week of Deutz-Fahr training, then I am back home for a week before going to do some Trimble training – learning the precision ag side, autosteer, GPS and so on for tractors. I can’t speak highly enough of my employers as they are paying for me to do that training. It’s fantastic.”
With electrification now a part of the agricultural sector, training to be able to work on battery electric and hybrid vehicles will become part of Kye’s training too.
“That is something we all have to embrace,” he said.
“There is no denying that electrification is the future.”
As for Kye’s future once he completes his apprenticeship,
his enthusiasm to keep learning, and do so with BMAS, seems clear.
“I don’t intend to leave BMAS any time soon,” he said. “I’m still young, want to pile in as much knowledge as I can and be as good at my job as
I can be. And then whatever happens, happens.”
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (March 2024)
15 March 2024
