Miss Hodgins is the second female apprentice at the Orange depot where she will help to maintain the infrastructure within the high voltage electrical substations. 

“It’s a complete change to what I’ve done before,” Miss Hodgins said.

“It took me a long time to work out what I wanted to do with my life.

“I went to uni because that’s what everyone expected me to do but then I didn’t know what to do so I studied business, then circumstances changed and I had to leave uni.”

She also worked in retail and hospitality including five years at Collins Booksellers.

Now aged 22 she said she was old for an apprentice because pay rates were lower for people aged less than 21 and was thankful Transgrid was willing to make the extra investment. She started her new job on January 19.

Miss Hodgins said she was inspired to apply for the apprenticeship and career change after seeing an ad in the paper.

“It’s job security, if I do good work that’s four years where I’m guaranteed to be studying and still earning money, job security is very important to me after so many years being a casual,” she said.

Until starting with Transgrid she said she had no experience with anything electrical but she had an interest in physics and found electricity more interesting than other trades and has not ruled out one day returning to university to study electrical engineering.

“The idea of something powerful that if you put everything together the right way successfully you are powering things like hospitals and I like the idea that you are helping people but from the background,” she said.

Transgrid apprentice coordinator Glen Davis said it was that spirit and inquisitive mind that made Miss Hodgins such a good candidate.

“She’s just a bit of a standout really, she’s a very smart girl and with the maintenance of the substations we have some really technical equipment,” he said.

Although women make up only about five per cent of apprenticeship applications with the company, he said more girls have been showing interest at Transgrid stalls at career expos in Orange and Bathurst in the past few years. 

In the past five or six years the company has also put on about nine or 10 female apprentices across its operation with seven or eight apprenticeships made available, including one in Orange, each year.

In addition to her apprenticeship Miss Hodgins will also undertake an electro technology course at The Western Institute of TAFE in Orange.