2024HutchiesTrainingAwards
News
The eagerly awaited Hutchies Training Awards were held 11 May 2024, at Wests Rugby Union Clubhouse, which was built by Hutchies in 2016. This year was extra special as we celebrated 20 years of the awards which has recognised the great achievements of Hutchies’ homegrown apprentices and cadets over two decades.
Hutchies Training Awards began in 2004 to acknowledge the accomplishments of our apprentices and cadets. As an enterprise based registered training organisation (RTO), we have celebrated dozens of standout recipients over the years.
The first event was held in the backyard of our Director, Ben Young's, grandmother's house and while it started fairly low key it has grown to become one of the highlights of the year in Hutchies' social calendar. It's been celebrated in various venues over the years including Toowong Rowing Shed, The Triffid, The Outpost and more.
This year's event was hosted by Peter Forsingdal, Training Manager and Harry White, National Commercial Manager. The evening is a platform to highlight the extraordinary commitment, skills, and effort put forth by all the candidates and their trainers.
A huge congratulations to our Apprentice of the Year, Stephanie Castaldo in Bernie Nolan's Team in Melbourne, and Cadet of the Year, Hunter Hall who is part of Rohan Barry's Team in Southport.
Our project teams, who work with the apprentices and cadets daily, nominate individuals for these awards. They witness the growth and contributions of this group firsthand.
This year, we received a record number of nominations, reflecting the significant impact of our apprentices and cadets across the country. We extend our hearty congratulations to the winners and nominees for their relentless effort.
We'd like to thank our sponsors who generously donated a range of amazing prizes for our winners — BUSY At Work, Hutchinson Builders, Total Tools and Milwaukee. Bunnings also kindly provided our lucky door prizes for the night.
#Stephanie Castaldo
2023 Apprentice of the Year
"Stephanie is an outstanding apprentice who is highly skilled with all her tools on site, and along with her eagerness to work, and learn, she is highly sought after by all our site subbies to spend time working with them. I have been working with apprentices for over 35 years in the industry and Stephanie is simply outstanding in every way."
Jai Smith
4th Year Apprentice Winner
"Jai has just completed his 4th year last year he has demonstrated that he indeed has the Hutchies culture and work ethic. His improvement over the last year has been outstanding, both in training and at work, and exceeding expectations. He has proved that he has the leadership qualities and drive to succeed."
Finlay Ross
3rd Year Apprentice Winner
"Finlay has been thrown in the deep end on our project and has exceeded our expectations. He has proven the ability to think forward and plan the week's work. He has pride in his work and is always first on site and last to leave. Finlay has what it takes to become the next Site Manager."
Aiden Hartley
2nd Year Apprentice Winner
"Aiden has a great attitude toward life and work. He would be the best 2nd year apprentice I have seen. There is not one job he doesn't like. He is a fast learner and is always ready to help. He takes responsibility for the tasks he has been asked to do. He has a massive future in the industry, and it is young lads like Aiden who are the future of Hutchies."
Jacob Miller
1st Year Apprentice Winner
"Jacob is keen to learn, always ready to jump in and lend a hand, and gets on well with his peers and the quality of his work is excellent. He continues to go above and beyond, showing great resilience when given a difficult task. He shows enthusiasm and a strong desire to acquire new skills and knowledge and exceeds expectations. Jacob has given every challenge a go and always asked why, how, and what more we could do to make it better, which is why he is on his way to becoming the next generation builder."
#Apprentice Nominees
4th Year
Jack Scott | Jai Smith | Kieran Neiland |
Luke Hanna | Connor Bloomfield |
3rd Year
Finlay Ross | Jack Bradford | Stephanie Castaldo |
Travis Gordon | Wesley White | Carter Deeks |
2nd Year
Aiden Hartley | Cambel Hartley | Connor Gillen |
Danny Syrch | Hayden Willis | Harrison Cassimatis |
Jackson Munn | Jaxon Pommer | Kevin Matthys |
Louis Karidis | Nathan Chappel | Oliver Hartwig |
Taylor Miller |
1st Year
Britney King | Cameron Esler | Ethan Williams |
Jacob Miller | Owan Scott | Bailey Caplick |
#Hunter Hall
2023 Cadet of the year
"Hunter has exceeded all expectations during his final year as a building cadet. He has initiative, motivation and goes over and beyond his allocated tasks to ensure the work is completed."
#Dean Tyler-Battaglia
2023 Cadet Runner Up
"Dean’s teaching skills and his willingness to help me on my journey. Dean’s ability to break down complex concepts into something easily understood is commendable. His willingness to help extends beyond the site, he’s an inspiration for those he helps within QUT Construct as president and is a driving force in fostering a positive learning environment."
Megan Long
2023 Cadet Finalist
"Megan is already at a standard where she can work independently and has initiative. Already confident to talk subbies and review progress claims and negotiate claim values. She understands the process of reviewing the project drawings and specification to develop the subcontract scopes."
Jackson Little
2023 Cadet Finalist
"Jackson is a very hard working cadet with an impressive knowledge of both building works and contract administration. He exceeds expectations onsite, coordinating subcontractors and solving daily construction issues at ease. While balancing a full-time CM degree and fulltime cadet role at Hutchies, I admire his dedication to achieve both high academic grades and good work ethic. With a cool, collected attitude, Jackson will make a great Project Manager or Team Leader in the near future."
Gina Meeve
2023 Cadet Finalist
"Gina is one of our standout cadets in Toowoomba team’s new cadet program. Gina selflessly relocated from Brisbane to become a Hutchies cadet. She was granted a rare full scholarship to TAFE based on her results and journey to study a Diploma of Building & Construction. We are very proud of Gina."
#Cadet Nominees
Adrian Hewson | Ammon Beard | Andrew Gillespie |
Angelique Dassakis | Bailee Ward | Baxter Foreman |
Behbod Izadi | Ben Ziser | Blake Phipps |
Callum Washington | Christos Vivlios | Clinton Schneider |
Connor Beu | Cooper Bessel | Daniel Crabb |
David Jackson | Dean Tyler- Battaglia | Declan Clark-Murphy |
Edward Miles | Eric Bottomley | Ewan MacLeod |
Flynn Daniel | Gabriella Behr | Gina Meeve |
Grace Little | Hunter Hall | Isaac Deeb |
Izaac Ibrahim | Jack Fissenden | Jack Maya |
Jack Thornton | Jackson Little | Jacob Fowler |
John Tadros | Jye Woods | Lachlan Cort |
Liam Walker | Libby Ireland | Luke Russell |
Margot Cartier | Megan Long | Michael Vukoja |
Nicholas Clegg | Paris Hales | Patrick Dallimore |
Rachel Hutchinson | Sam Barker | Sue Zhao |
Tom Meehan |