Bus to the future

This is a good news story about what can happen when you are given the chance to contribute to a project and the unexpected way that the results can come to your attention.

Several weeks ago Yael Stone and Hi Neighbour (think scholarships to re-train in renewables) had a celebratory event at the Servo in Port Kembla. But the reason for this story is what was at that event. 

So to go even further back, a couple of years ago TAFE NSW along with UOW held a series of meetings about the future of TAFE and how it can be aligned with the shift towards renewables. Yael and I were invited to those meetings to share our thoughts. TAFE does amazing work, especially given the funding cuts, in training people of all ages to pursue a myriad different careers. But one of their problems was how to set up courses in renewables when there needs to be guaranteed teachers and students?

So our suggestion, repeatedly, was to set up some sort of interactive mobile unit that can showcase what career paths there can be in renewables. There were other suggestions and the meetings concluded and everyone went their separate ways. About six months later I received a phone call from TAFE and was told that they had taken on board what Yael and I had said and they were going to use funding to build some interactive demonstration units. I smiled – a lot!

So jump forward to the Servo in Port Kembla a few weeks ago. As I was walking up the street to the Servo I was thinking how much I always enjoy events there. Food trucks, something to drink, some music and good people. I looked up and thought: “Now that is a big food truck.”

But as I walked in I read what was on the side of the “food truck”, which said…TAFE NSW Energy Futures Skills Unit.

I just stared at it thinking if it really could be. Then Andrew Martin from TAFE, walked out of the “food truck”, looked at me, smiled and said: “Hi Darryl, here is your bus.”

To someone who has been campaigning for renewables to offset the job losses in coal, those six words meant the world to me. I am still smiling.

So for me the takeaway from this is to never underestimate the effect or influence your words and contributions can have. They won’t always deliver a bus, but said in the right place and in the right way, they may just help the world to be a better place.

And you can contact TAFE in Wollongong (where they have an even bigger bus) and/or Andrew Martin and go and have a play with all the interactive equipment and read the fun facts about our energy future and the career opportunities. Or you may even be more fortunate and it will turn up at a school near you.