21 year-old Jermaine Pickett, a talented AFL footballer who combines working in traffic control with playing in the WAFL for South Fremantle, talks about how his work in traffic control gives him the support and security to follow his dreams of playing in the AFL.
Jermaine took his first steps towards construction by completing a Certificate II in Engineering through a school-based apprenticeship. While he looked into going on to complete an apprenticeship and getting into the industry that way, he knew he needed a stable job and decent income straight away. It was this that led him into traffic management services.
Choosing a construction career in traffic control
Through his involvement in both the Clontarf Foundation and his football, Jermaine met Michael Johnson, the owner of traffic management company Kany Bidi Traffic Control. As a successful indigenous AFL star and Clontarf alumnus himself, Johnson is keen to help those coming up behind him across Western Australia.
“I’ve known Michael Johnson since he was playing for the Fremantle Dockers,” Jermaine says. “He understood that my career goal might be AFL, but I need something to fall back on if I can’t pursue it. With AFL, all it takes is one injury.”
Before Johnson took the young footballer on full time, he needed to make sure his more experienced traffic controllers would accept someone who might have to alter their schedule around training. But Jermaine now credits the people he works alongside as one of the best parts of his work in traffic control.
I had discussions about flexibility and training alongside the job and Michael was ok with it,” he says. “It was a matter of getting the other boys on board with supporting me when I have to leave early, but they’re like another family to me now. We’re all just brothers.”
Jermaine’s pathway through the Clontarf Foundation
So far, footy has done well by Jermaine. He’s been part of the Dockers’ Next Generation Academy as well as being in the senior program at South Fremantle for the last three years. It’s also football that brought him to a program that he credits with giving him a sense of purpose: The Clontarf Foundation.
“Clontarf is an academy that uses sports as a reward to bring indigenous kids into school. You’ve got to reach a certain attendance each term to get the rewards. They help with the academic side as well, they help you with your homework or any work stage that you’re behind in. But the reward is sports.
“When you go to school, it’s an everyday thing but when you’re being rewarded for coming in, it gives you more sense of purpose. It makes you feel valued.”
Balancing footy with work
Jermaine is valued, both at work and on the pitch. How does he combine the roles? “With the traffic management job that I’m doing now, I’m based in Fremantle and we’re doing the Fremantle Bridge at the moment so I’m lucky to have the convenience of it being around the corner from the oval.
It’s nice out here, compared to the other places that we do get. Some of the guys are in Southern Cross doing 12 hour days. And it’s a stable income and there’s always going to be work.”
Stability is something Jermaine returns to. Is that the best thing about working in traffic management solutions within the construction industry?
The best thing about traffic control
“I enjoy it because of the people I work with and the stability. The amount of traffic, there’s always going to be work. But the best thing about the construction industry is really being part of something bigger.
“Take this bridge at the moment. Local people use it, imports, exports go over it, pedestrians and trucks. It’s working on something bigger than me that everyone is going to benefit from.”
The hours involved in traffic control and management can be long, and there are times when the noise might deafen you but Jermaine enjoys the element of helping road users involved in traffic control.
“We look after the traffic, maintaining it for the safety of the public, and separating the public from the work areas. I’ve been here for the last three or four years and it’s a decent job, making a difference.”
Considering a career in construction?
As a proud member of the Noongar people, Jermaine is keen to help people in his position get into the construction industry. He goes back to Clontarf regularly to see how they’re getting on and is keen to go back to chat with any of the boys struggling when he’s needed. He also wants people to see construction for the place of opportunity that it is.
“Have an open mind to it,” he urges. “Whether you come in as a traffic controller, a labourer or a supervisor, it just depends what you look at. There’s endless opportunity and there’s always going to be jobs within it.” If you’re interested in a career in construction, contact CTF to learn about pathways into the industry. There are a number of pathways and school-based traineeships available, as well as other routes and financial support.
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