Growing up on a property on the outskirts of a rural township and often not able to attend school due to being confined to her home by the effects of bad weather, Stephanie Bugg was required to complete her learning through the School of Distance Education. This style of schooling ensured Steph spent a lot of time on her family's property, helping out her father with his refrigeration business. By Year 10, Steph was working full-time in her father’s company and completing her schooling at night. At this stage, any spare time the 15 year old had was now spent on gathering information by reading old refrigeration books and manuals. A year later and with Year 10 now successfully behind her, Steph began her apprenticeship in air conditioning and refrigeration. “Most people I knew did an apprenticeship, so it seemed like the most logical next step for me,” Steph comments.
Because she had already spent a lot of time in the industry and had picked up knowledge from both her dad and the old books and manuals that she had been reading, the study seemed to come far more naturally to her than for most. As a consequence Steph was able to secure high grades in all the formal aspects of her training. Though Steph was the only woman to enter her trade that year and was not aware of any others across her state doing the same thing, she didn’t feel like she was out of place or undertaking any ground breaking steps in her industry. “I wasn’t doing it because I had some kind of statement to make or because I was trying to be different – I simply loved what I was already doing and wanted to take it as far as I could,” she admits.
Fast forward a couple of years and wanting to put her developing skills to the test, Steph competed in and won the national leg of the prestigious Worldskills competition in 2000. Worldskills is a rigorous international program that tests the trade skills of its competitors and in the refrigeration and air conditioning division, entrants undertake meticulous assessments on such subjects as measurement, electrical fault detection, welding techniques and time scheduling, etc. “As the national winner I was also required to compete in the world titles which were held in Korea in 2001 where I also won gold.” Steph continued in her successes by finishing her Certificate III in Mechanical Engineering (Refrigeration) near the top of her class. Having completed all her on-the-job training at her father’s Custom Refrigeration and Recreational Equipment business, Steph credits her father for much of her success in the apprenticeship and subsequent Worldskills competition.
back to topAs a quiet and shy teenager, it was a well known fact that most people were hard pressed to get even a ‘boo’ from this reserved young woman when she first started her trade. Since then, with Steph’s success in Worldskills and her involvement in a women’s training and public speaking organization called ’Women in the Workforce‘, she is now a competent and seasoned communicator and public speaker. “I was so shy when I started out that I could never have imagined doing the things that I am doing now,” she confesses. It just shows that shyness and a lack of confidence don’t have to stop us from achieving the things that we need to achieve. Overcoming shyness wasn’t some big revelation that came to me all at once, or something that I overcame by participating in some single, big, scary event. It sort of grew on me little by little until one day I realized that I could speak anywhere, at anytime, to anybody, with the utmost of confidence,” she says. “All you have to do is be willing to take just one small step at a time.”
Steph is now a full-time employee at Alpine Refrigeration and Air Conditioning where she has spent a couple of years working in the field as a troubleshooter, diagnosing and fixing faults in the wide range of refrigeration and air conditioning appliances that her company is contracted to service. The young mechanic admits to enjoying the adrenalin rush that comes with having to diagnose and fix a problem before valuable products such as refrigerated perishables begin to go off – a dilemma that could obviously cost their customers thousands of dollars. “My job involves a lot of responsibility,'” she says. “I love everything about it. The satisfaction of going to a job, fixing the problem and having someone depend on you is very rewarding,” Steph states enthusiastically. Now only a couple of months short of giving birth to her first baby, Steph is restricted to office based work, needing to be content with assessing and quoting on repair jobs until after the birth. “When I come back I hope to be able to get straight back out into the field, it’s what I love doing most,” she affirms.
With the increasing use of PC boards and digital technology in both the construction and day to day running of air conditioning and refrigeration units, Steph believes that she will always need to be upgrading her qualifications if she is to stay on top of her industry. This steep learning curve aside, Steph says that she would also like to complete further study to secure her electrical contractors licence. Currently only qualified to carry out limited electrical work directly linked to the machine that she is working on, Steph admits to experiencing a frustration at sometimes having to wait for a licensed electrician to undertake certain tasks before she is able to continue. “If I become an electrician, I will be able to fast track so many of my repairs by doing them all myself,” she says. “I know it will be another four years of study that I’m going to have to do, but it will be worth it in the end,” she concludes.
back to topHaving helped her dad for so many years in his business, the 25 year old has no intention of ever running her own company. “I looked after my dad’s books for quite some time and know the time and stress involved in running a small business. At the end of the day I have to confess that I really enjoy the idea of continuing to work for a good employer where I can still actually generate more income for myself than if I was on my own,” she says.
However, Steph is very keen to use any time available to utilize her expertise to help others take an interest in their training and careers. “During my time as a refrigeration mechanic, I have never regretted my decision to follow my dreams and become what I am today,” she acknowledges. “If I can encourage other young people, especially young women, to dare to follow their own dreams, then I feel that I will have accomplished something very important,” she states with passion.
“Don’t give up, never mind how hard it may seem at the time.”
“If you have a career in mind that others may find difficult to understand and support, don’t be put off. Research all you can about your job interest before making a decision and be careful you don’t get too hung up on the negatives that others may try and impose on you. If you’ve sussed the job out properly and you still feel good about it, follow your heart.”
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