Clare businessman tells new graduates to 'set themselves a challenge' to succeed
The national apprenticeship awards ceremony for Limerick and Clare education and training board (ETB) and Kerry ETB has taken place.
Apprentices from a wide range of disciplines were conferred including: aircraft and agricultural mechanics, carpentry and joinery, construction plant fitting, electrical, hairdressing, metal fabrication, motor mechanics, pipefitting, plumbing and stonemasonry.
Chief executive of Iarnród Éireann - Irish Rail, Jim Meade, also started his career as a fitter.
The Clare native proved to be the perfect guest speaker at the graduation ceremony, having travelled the apprenticeship journey himself.
As Mr Meade explained to the graduates, he began his career as an apprentice fitter in 1979, joining Iarnród Éireann after finishing his apprenticeship in 1983.
Before he was appointed chief executive, Mr Meade worked in a variety of roles, including fleet maintenance management, strategic change programmes and district manager.
Congratulating the newly graduated apprentices, Mr Meade told the newly qualified apprentices that this was “just the beginning of their stories”, and encouraged them to test themselves within their careers.
“Set yourself a challenge, you will either succeed or you will learn from it” he said.