Top Rio Tinto apprentice hailed for leadership in electrical safety

Fourth-year electrical apprentice Alan Davidson from Rio Tinto’s Utilities Dampier division has been awarded the company’s apprentice of the year award.

The Rio Tinto WA Apprentice Awards were open to all apprentices across four regions including coastal, West Pilbara, East Pilbara and Argyle.

Mr Davidson won apprentice of the coastal region before pipping his peers to take home the top award.

Rio’s Pilbara Mines managing director, Stefan Buys, said Mr Davidson had been chosen as the overall winner for being an outstanding apprentice.

“He was consistently performing above the requirements of his apprenticeship by playing a lead role in identifying and implementing safety procedures and risk assessment tools for every task,” Mr Buys said.

Other Statewide winners from the coastal region included Trevor Fawcett, a second-year mechanical plant fitter at Dampier Ports who won the safety award, and Josh Grimm, runner-up in the Lee Buzzard award for his work at Cape Lambert as a fourth-year mechanical fitter apprentice.

Mr Buys said Rio Tinto was committed to developing apprentices.

“We want to help cultivate skills and work prospects for our next generation of employees and we’re investing to help them prepare for their futures, both inside our business and through our education partnerships,” he said.

“In 2019, we will recruit over 180 new graduates, vacation students, apprentices and trainees in Western Australia.”