Triumph In Triplicate For Mba Group

Newcastle Herald

Friday August 6, 2004

NEWCASTLE MBA Group Training and Personnel had three reasons to celebrate at the Hunter Region Apprenticeship and Traineeship Awards presentation night.

Three of their employees took out awards on the night, which celebrates the achievements of apprentices and trainees in the Hunter Region.

They are Trent Webster (electrical apprentice of the year), Ben Nicol (carpentry and joinery apprentice of the year) and Michael Wilson (shop-fitting and joiner apprentice of the year).

Newcastle MBA Group Training and Personnel was established in 1999 by the Master Builders Association (MBA) as its response to the close-down of BHP.

It also addressed the building industry's need for a dedicated body to instigate and help with ongoing building industry training concentrating on the Hunter Region's disproportionate youth unemployment.

Since then MBA's Group Apprenticeship Scheme has grown to employ more than 155 apprentices and trainees, and is the region's largest industry training organisation for apprentices in the building and construction sector.

Some of the first intake of MBA apprentices now work in the industry as builders and tradesmen and are reinvesting in the industry by employing new apprentices from the MBA scheme.

MBA's Group Scheme is the Hunter's only group training company with in-house specialists in legal services, industrial relations, housing, occupational health and safety, and training departments, all backed by the MBA.

Master Builders represents more than 23,000 companies nationally and has 230 staff across the nation, making it the peak representative body for the building and construction industry.

Current apprenticeships with Newcastle MBA Group Training are in the areas of carpentry and joinery, electrical, plumbing, gas fitting and drainage, construction carpentry, plastering (solid and fibrous), bricklaying, painting and decorating, wall and floor tiling, electrotechnology assembly and services, metal roofing and roof plumbing and roof tiling.

Traineeships include Business (office administration) Certificates II & III, Retail Operations Certificate II, Furnishings (Surface Finishing Operations) Certificate II, and General Construction Certificate II.

MBA Group Training was awarded 46th place in the region's Top 100 fastest-growing companies this year.