Mechanic – Refrigeration & Airconditioning

Aimee Brown

Starting an apprenticeship in his 30s has turned out to be an advantage for David Murray. He was 31 when he started as a refrigeration and airconditioning mechanic.  Now 34, he is enrolled in a Certificate III in Electrotechnology (Refrigeration and Airconditioning) at the Sydney Institute’s Ultimo Campus and is due to complete his apprenticeship with engineering contract company Triple M Mechanical Services in August.

Murray completed a carpet-laying apprenticeship in his early 20s before working in hospitality and supervising a bar, and says being older gives him a head start — with skills learned in other jobs. “Carpet-laying really teaches you to have a strong work ethic: you learn to get in there and get the job done,” he says. “And working in a bar has taught me more than anything about managing people. “I can communicate with a lot of different people, from young to old. People skills aren’t something that you learn from a textbook.” He says these skills help him interact with other tradespeople and apprentices he works alongside.

Murray decided to do an apprenticeship in the trade after a conversation with a refrigeration and airconditioning mechanic convinced him the job would be for him. “I wish I had done it years before,” he says. “It was nothing that I ever considered as a possibility. I never even knew what it involved.”

He now works for Triple M Mechanical Services, which installs and maintains airconditioning, refrigeration, heating, ventilation and fire services in commercial and industrial buildings in NSW and Queensland. He is responsible for the maintenance and servicing of the airconditioning systems at eight Sydney-based Greater Union cinemas. Murray enjoys the versatile nature of the trade. “There are so many different facets to it. You’re never doing the same thing,” he says. “You’re a plumber one day; the next, you’re an electrician. It all depends on what the particular job is.”

Before working on the cinemas, Murray spent a year working on sites for the Australian Defence Force, including Garden Island. He says working in such varied areas during his apprenticeship has given him a broad experience base that many other apprentice refrigeration and airconditioning mechanics do not have.

“I’m lucky,” he says. “Most of the people in the industry work with a company that specialises in just one area, whereas ours, because it is such a large company, covers most aspects of refrigeration and airconditioning work. The only area it doesn’t cover is domestic work.”

How to be a … Airconditioning and refrigeration mechanic

You must do an apprenticeship, studying a Certificate III in Electrotechnology (Refrigeration and Airconditioning).

Details: ElectroComms and Energy Utilities Industry Skills Council, 92802566 or ee-oz.com.au