“Me and the team, we’ve made some noises about a ‘bring your dog to work day’. It hasn’t happened yet, and I figured we've only got a few days left so I'm gonna get on board with it.”
Molly – a four-year-old border collie X poodle – is more than happy with this change in routine.
“The morning ritual is, when I put this shirt on, she gets a bit excited, something's going on you know. But as soon as I get my watch, wedding ring, and pass, to walk out the door, that's it. She hates it. She’ll sit by the door until I come home.”
While Molly’s been keeping a close eye on the door, at the shipyard, as Principal – Apprenticeships and Traineeships, Roger’s been shaping our apprentice program since 2020. Recently, it’s been a time for Roger to reflect on his own journey, having started as an apprentice boilermaker at 16 himself.
“Last week I was speaking to a year 11 student and just went wow, it doesn’t feel that long ago that I was standing where you are, just starting out.
“Kids in school get framed with, ‘what are you going to do when you leave school?’ Impossible question to answer because nobody knows what they're going to do. I tell young people it took me until I was 30 to figure it out – because nobody had helped me understand it’s all about what you like to do.
“For me, the answer was simple. I like making things and fixing things. It doesn't really matter what it is, I just like making things.”
While it may have taken some time to come to this realisation, one of Roger’s childhood memories stands out to him now more than ever.
“I'm about four years old, I've got a tricycle, and one of the wheels squeaked. I didn't know why, but it was annoying, and I was going to make it go away. So I've put it up on bricks, worked out how to pull a little pin and take this wheel off the shaft. I cleaned it up, put it all back together, and it was no longer squeaking.”
Roger joined BAE Systems Australia in 2020, however was no stranger to the Osborne shipyard. Working for Eglo Engineering, then Transfield Engineering between 1987 to 1993, Roger recalls when the only buildings onsite were what we now know as Building 02 and 03, and the outdoor crane.
“It was the joint where all this cool stuff was happening. These guys did really great construction work, people wanted to work here because of the standard of the workmanship.”
His second stint at Osborne was in 1996, working as a night shift supervisor on an exploration oil rig undergoing repair and recovery work.
When he returned to the shipyard in 2020, the car park was near empty, the workforce hadn’t been stood up yet, and the first apprentice cohort was still two weeks out from starting. An integral member of the Early Careers team from the beginning, Roger has spent the last four years shaping the way we develop and retain these young people.
“Retention is about acknowledging achievements. When somebody has done something well, we need to tell them straight away. Checking in to see that they’re actually doing okay, and making sure they know they can come and tell us what is or isn’t working for them.”
Equipping apprentices with life skills outside the shipyard, like financial literacy, was something Roger introduced from the very first cohort – and something of a highlight from his time here.
“We see people in their 40s and 50s who don't have a plan for what happens when they stop working, when they can't work. So for me, this has been about creating an environment for our apprentices, from a really early age, where they have more control over their own destiny.
“As time has gone on, one of the things I'm really pleased about, is one of the apprentices who has now bought his own house. He hasn't even had his 21st birthday yet. Being able to influence some of the thinking and commitment to the development of self for these guys, I really enjoy that.”
While Roger has always been a dedicated leader, his time with these apprentices highlighted the importance of learning from those you mentor. Every apprentice has an individual learning style, and Roger and the team recognised they needed to be adaptable in their approach and communication.
“One apprentice in particular, we went away and did some education ourselves, to better support them to achieve things they didn’t realise they were capable of. It was about finding out what they needed and providing it, and that enabled them to build their own success.
“Did I do that for them? No, we just took away some barriers and let them find their own way. And that's the approach we've got for all the kids, regardless of their own individual traits and attributes.
“We don't have a one-size-fits-all. It’s not ‘you're wearing a yellow shirt, so this is what you've got to do’. We need to understand what they need, understand what they want, and work with them.”
With the first cohort of apprentices in the yard set to complete their training early next year, Roger’s excited about what lies ahead for them.
“I'm confident that I can shake all their hands today and know that they've all done the things they said they wanted to do – because they have done it.”
Roger’s hopeful their presentations happen before he takes off on a trip around the country with his wife, Sharon.
“We’re heading to Eyre Peninsula for a few months, then to Darwin for five or six weeks. And then after that, we'll worry about it. We don't have a plan. I don't know if I'm going to go clockwise or anti-clockwise, or which place we're going to go to next.
“I’m excited by the notion that my new hobby and biggest stressor for the day will be finding pieces of firewood. We plan on finding those places that you can just go and do what you want to do, maybe catch a fish, maybe not.
“Are we going to do a lap? Not so much. It's about having a go at living a different way in a different place, until we're satisfied that we've done that. And that might take us a year. It might take us five.”
With his last day fast approaching, Roger reflects on where it all began.
“I'm still blown away that a 15-year-old came here the other day and had a chat about wanting to start an apprenticeship in year 12. That’s where it all started for me. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but that’s the reality of 45 years.”
Roger’s advice to young people is simple: listen, learn, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
“It’s important a young person is empowered to ask why do we need to do that? How does that work? It's our challenge to develop people with the ability to be capable in anything and everything. They may not be capable yet, but if we've given them the skills to learn how to do it and to question how it’s done, they can go into the world and be and do anything else.
“I started my working life as an apprentice, and I am still a tradesperson. That's part of the messaging I’d like to leave with people. It's not necessary to end up with a degree for you to do something you want to do. It's all about find out what you like, find out what you might be good at. Get somebody to pay you for it. And then go and do it.”