MARLISSA White from The Vines and Breanna Zoethout from Wattle Grove have won in their respective categories at the WA training awards.

Ms White was named the WA School-based Apprentice of the Year for her work while completing her traineeship and Certificate II in Automotive Services Technology.

She said winning the award made her very emotional.

“It just really made me think about my traineeship and how hard it was to work from the beginning, from not knowing what I wanted to do to now – starting an apprenticeship next year with Westrac,” she said.

Ms White hopes her win can inspire other women.

“I hope to encourage other women who are scared to go into a male-dominated industry and get them into the workforce,” she said.

“I want to encourage them to do a school-based traineeship, especially if they want to get experience and understand what industry they want to go into in the future.”

Ms Zoethout was named the WA Vocational Student of the Year for her training at South Metropolitan TAFE while completing a Diploma of Events Management.

“It’s honestly pretty incredible. It was very unexpected and a bit of a shock – to have been selected as the winner was very cool and I’m quite honoured,” she said.

Ms Zoethout said she chose to train in events because she believes it’s an industry that brings people together and creates shared experiences that extend beyond the event itself.

She hopes the award will open doors for her in the future.

“But even if it doesn’t bring myself a million and one opportunities, I hope that it can at least inspire a few people to choose to study at TAFE and show that they don’t have to study straight after school to be successful,” she said.

“That’s my main message – you can wait and it’ll be there for you and you can still find success out of it.”

As mentioned in Five local finalists in WA training awards, the WA training awards recognise outstanding achievement in the vocational education and training sector.