Talented blacksmith wins Swinburne Apprentice of the Year award
In Summary
- Mitchell Fisch completed a Certificate III in Engineering – Fabrication Trade
- Mr Fisch operates his own blacksmithing business, Mitchell Fisch Blacksmith
Mitchell Fisch has won the Swinburne Apprentice of the Year Award for 2016 after completing a Certificate III in Engineering – Fabrication Trade.
The other finalists were plumbing apprentice Steve Coonan and fitting and machining apprentice Vladimir Miskovic.
“I feel extremely honoured to have received this award and also very honoured to have been a part of the Swinburne community,” Mr Fisch says.
“I was lucky enough to work at multiple companies throughout my apprenticeship and was able to work on different types of manufacturing. I was doing different things every day which was both great fun and also very educational.”
Although Mr Fisch completed his apprenticeship in fabrication, he now operates his own blacksmithing business.
“I first worked in wrought iron fabricating and forging gates and fences from scratch. I fell in love with the forging process and working with hot steel.”
“Welding and fabrication is an important industry in our society and blacksmithing is very much a part of its history. I use both skill sets together to create the work that I do.”
Under the business name of Mitchell Fisch Blacksmith, Mr Fisch forges custom pieces of art for clients.
“The possibilities of what you can create are only limited to your imagination and skill set, so I made it my goal to learn as much as possible and am still learning to this day.”
During his time at Swinburne, Mr Fisch also had the chance to work in South Africa as part of the Community Plumbing Challenge. During the two-week trip, teams of four had to design and build eight toilets for the community of Diepsloot.
“The opportunity to work in South Africa was by far the most awesome experience of my life.”
In the future Mr Fisch hopes to continue his business forging one-of-a-kind artworks.
“My goal is to keep working at it and do the best work that I can do.”
“Swinburne allowed me to learn the most I could in my trade and winning this award makes the whole experience throughout my apprenticeship even more special and memorable.”
The Swinburne Apprentice of the Year Award is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Boronia.