Tom Bourne Cat Apprentice of the Year

Tom Bourne Cat Apprentice of the Year

Congratulations to Tom Bourne who last Friday won Caterpillar's Top Apprentice of the Year for ANZI, beating apprentices from Australia, Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Indonesia.

Hosted by Caterpillar at the Melbourne Training Centre, this was the 40th annual Dealer Top Apprentice Program. The five-day program is designed to be both a reward and a challenge for elite apprentices technicians.

To become a candidate in this program, each apprentice must first compete in a rigorous competition to be the best apprentice at their dealer. This special anniversary event included the participants from the ANZI region:

Adam Radford - William Adams
Nathan Merritt - Cavpower
Rahmadi – Trakindo.
Scott McKenzie - WesTrac WA
Tom Bourne - Hastings Deering

During the week, the candidates participated in a range of activities including presentations and visits to leading businesses in their respective industry or market.The program also has a competition element with each participant being assessed on personal conduct and technical knowledge and skills in the following fields:

10 minute formal presentation

50 question theory paper pulled from the Caterpillar Apprenticeship Service Technician Training (CASTT) foundational training materials

9 practical skills stations that included fault code diagnostics, data mining, inspection, procedural testing and soft skills for the following: 140 Motor Grader, 272D2 Skid Steer Loader, C18 engine, C7.1 Tier 4 Final engine, C7 Marine engine, C175 engine, G3606 Engine, Reusability and Customer Experience.

Tom won the Skills Olympics competition and was the overall competition winner as well.

This caps off a stellar six months for Tom who won the Harry Hauenschild Apprentice of the Year at the Darling Downs South-West Queensland Training Awards in 2018, was Hasting Deering’s 2018 Apprentice of the Year and now the Caterpillar Top Apprentice. Well done, you wear the Hastings Deering brand proud.

Thank you to the many teams and people who have supported Tom: our wonderful apprentice trainers, the Learning and Development Team, on the job trainers in both Toowoomba and Mackay.