At Acora we would like to show our support for Jacob Topping who has been a School Based Apprentice with our business since March 2020 in the Fitting & Machining Trade. Jacob is starting his 3rd year of his SBA and proving to be a valued member of our staff and will continue his trade qualifications with Acora once he finishes high school. Our business consists of 14 Tradesman, 5 Professionals and 7 Apprentices and we have strong beliefs in training and developing our employees to excel in the Fabrication and Manufacturing industry. We are a diverse company but our work mainly consists of Sawmill Equipment Fabrication that is specially designed, manufactured and installed by our team across Australia and New Zealand. Acora has been in business for 55 years and we are one of the main employers in our small home town of Eden on the Far South Coast of NSW. In one of our most technically skilled trades, Jacob has shown great maturity and capability in his role with Fitting and Machining. Our machining workshop has a variety of machines and technology that range from ‘old school’ equipment to state of the art CNC machinery, Jacob has excelled in the use and application of all of these machines. Accuracy and precision is key to this trade and Jacob shows patience and concentration when working with allocated projects in our machine shop. He will always ask first rather than fix later. Jacob brings to the workshop a fresh view on problem solving and how to best set up and complete a job efficiently, effectively and accurately. In our industry these attributes are critical to running a successful business. He is always invigorated after his block at TAFE in Wagga and applies his learnings to the workshop environment and is happy to update our ‘mature’ workers on current techniques he has learnt in the classroom. For his age, Jacob has proven that he can adapt easily to our ever changing environment and he is always willing to step outside his comfort zone to learn more about our business and the industry. His rapport with his team members is to be commended for a young man of his age, and he is confident and willing to contribute in any group setting.