TAFE & Adult Provision Holding all the aces
TAFE teacher and AEU member Strate Trajkovski was a mature-age student when he started his apprenticeship in 2020. He began teaching at Kangan Institute’s Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) Docklands last year – and, since then, he’s never looked back.
With a background in transport, couriers and VW Beetle restoration, Strate had been working as a mechanic at Bacchus Marsh Coaches bus depot when they offered him an apprenticeship.
“I was a trade assistant at the workshop, so when they offered me the apprenticeship it was a dream come true. My dad said, ‘Why don’t you do it, you’re always fixing other people’s cars’. The cost was prohibitive to do it out of my own pocket – it would have been about $20k – but to get paid and to learn, well, I jumped at the chance!”
While studying, Strate found that some of his fellow students were inclined to see him as a mentor. “Being of a similar age to the teachers, the younger folk gravitated to me for help, and one day one of the teachers said, ‘Have you ever thought about teaching?’
“Being 59, it’s a very physical job being a mechanic and it’s taxing on the body, so I thought: ‘What’s my plan as I decay?’” He laughs. “The moment I got qualified, I started the teaching course and applied for a job. When the teaching opportunity came up, I thought: ‘This makes sense’.”
Now, he is a heavy vehicle tech teacher: “Everything from fuel injection systems to auto transmissions, and more. Each component of the vehicle will have a section on it.” It’s a tight team at ACE, with around 40 in the ‘auto section’, along with admin and support staff, and Strate says he “couldn’t be happier”.
“You’ve got to be a teacher and a professional in your field. I don’t think that’s properly recognised.”
From the vantage point of decades spent working in the industry, Strate has a strong sense of the demands on teachers. “There’s all these dynamics you have to worry about – like, you have a dozen kids and a couple of them aren’t getting along and a couple of them are there because they have to be but don’t want to be – all those challenges all teachers have to deal with, I wasn’t prepared for.”
The vocational nature of TAFE teaching means the rewards run deep, he says, as does the workload. “It’s different to running a workshop where you just go and do your job and go home. With teaching, you’re always thinking about the next day’s class and what its content and materials might be, how you’re going to present it, how you’re going to test and assess.
“The planning process can be quite intense, but I am finding with time it’s becoming easier. Like with any job, it’s experience and doing it over and over.”
Easily the best thing about the job, says Strate, is being able to pass on his skills and knowledge to his students. “For me, personally, it’s almost like Charlie made it to the chocolate factory. It’s a great industry if you like it. When that penny drops in that kid’s eyes, and they’ve understood what you’ve told them…
“Yesterday, I was teaching about Faraday’s Law of electromagnetism, which is about predicting how a magnetic field interacts to create a current, and the penny-drop moment was great.
“I’ve always found that being a union member aligns with getting a fair go.”
“It’s the next generation, and they’re here at a good time with electric vehicles being more prevalent. They are at the cutting-edge; they are the start of something big. And it’s good for me, too, being part of that.”
TAFE teaching is like having two jobs in one, Strate says. “You’ve got to be a teacher and a qualified professional in your field, so it’s a dual qualification to start with, and I don’t think that’s properly recognised. I think that’s why we have trouble attracting new staff.
“A great tradesperson might not be a good teacher, and someone who is a great deliverer of material might not understand the craft of the work properly. You need someone who can and wants to do both. The teachers here are really good at what they do. I get inspiration from them. I know I’m in good company.”
Strate talks positively about reduction in fees for the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, which was the difference between him being able to do it and not. “It was around $100 out of pocket instead of $4000. It is an effort by the government to attract TAFE teachers across all industries and trades, especially building. Because how are we going to build these homes for the influx in population? To achieve this, we need the teachers.”
Recently, Strate has been supporting the sub-branch rep at ACE. “It’s about making other staff aware that we’re there to support them if they have issues they might need assistance with – pay queries, conditions, an explanation of the agreement. Having access to the reps here is a great support system. It’s good to have that fallback.”
A self-taught mechanic, he has been rebuilding Volkswagen Beetles since he was 15 years old. He still has seven of them, the oldest from 1963.
With a “western suburbs, working-class background”, Strate has always identified as a unionist, he says. “I’ve always found that being a union member aligns with getting a fair go. The neoliberal corporatisation of the world has made it difficult for the working classes.
“Really, it’s a cup of coffee a day that you’re not buying,“ he says of union fees. “I’ve always been part of a union, all my life. I’ve been in the Transport Workers Union since I was a teenager, and now the AEU. It’s just part of my philosophy.”
And another thing…
The most important things I take with me into the classroom every day are… my desire to pass on accurate and up-to-date learning material for the unit I’m teaching, along with my enthusiasm and fascination for all things mechanical.
The most important things to leave at home are… the bills.
The best advice I ever received was… from my two-year-old granddaughter who, after watching Frozen for the umpteenth time, sang to me, “Let it go, let it go!” when I was quietly shedding a tear for my dad, who had passed a few weeks earlier.
My top piece of advice to someone starting out in education would be… leave any political or religious affiliations you have well away from the classroom.
My favourite teacher at school was… a marvellous man named Chris Wilson, who was a legend in the Melbourne music scene. He taught me English way back in 1979 and 1980 – and encouraged my love of reading. He also introduced me to a wondrous independent radio station named 3RRR, which has an eclectic and motley mix of music and content that makes my day on the daily.
The people I admire most are… the ones who don’t depend too much on others.
The music and books that changed my life were… among many, many others, anything by author Carl Sagan, and a band named Death.
In my other life… I hope I meet the same people I’ve met in this one.
If I met the education minister, I’d tell them… if they plan on Victoria meeting the educational needs of its children and grandchildren, they’d better get their act together now! Otherwise, who’s going to have the knowledge and skills to build and maintain future housing, transportation, infrastructure and energy?
