Why We Created the $3,000 MDT DESIGN Australian Apprentice Tool Grant
Why would a Melbourne jewellery business offer a $3,000 tool grant to an apprentice who could be an electrician, carpenter, plumber, mechanic, chef, jeweller or almost any other trade?
For us, the answer is simple: MDT DESIGN was built by tradespeople who started out as apprentices.
Behind the engagement rings and fine jewellery in our Collins Street boutique is a working jewellery workshop. It’s where our jewellers sit at benches, work with their hands and use skills and tools that take years to master.
We know what it means to learn a trade because we’ve done it ourselves! That’s why we have created the MDT DESIGN Australian Apprentice Tool Grant, offering one Australian apprentice $3,000 towards tools and equipment for their trade. It’s a way we can give back to the tradespeople of our future.
Apprenticeships Are Part of Our Story
My father, Nicholas Theochari, founded MDT DESIGN in Melbourne in 1981 after learning the traditional skills of the jewellery trade through his apprenticeship.
Our jewellery continues to be entirely handmade on-site in our workshop using traditional techniques without the use of CAD or casting. We choose to start with precious metal and work it by hand – rolling, forging, hammering, forming and assembling it into a finished piece of jewellery. A process which is hard to come by in today’s market.
Jewellery may seem worlds away from plumbing, carpentry, electrical work or mechanics, but learning a trade has a common foundation. You learn on the job from people with experience, practise until your hands understand what you’re trying to achieve, make mistakes, improve and gradually turn knowledge into skill to build upon to other tasks.
This is something tradespeople across very different industries and trades can understand.
From Apprentice to Managing Director
I started my own jewellery apprenticeship at MDT DESIGN in 2003, learning the trade at the bench and working alongside experienced jewellers, including my father. Today, I’m the Managing Director and part owner of MDT DESIGN, as well as a qualified jeweller and diamond grader – but I still spend time at the bench, work closely with clients on custom designed pieces and remain closely involved in the jewellery we make.
Having started my career as an apprentice myself, supporting the next generation of Australian tradespeople is something I can personally relate to.
Apprentices Today Face Different Financial Pressures
We also recognise that starting an apprenticeship today can be financially difficult, we want to encourage the newer generations to take up a trade.
In previous generations, it was common to leave school early, at the age of 15 or 16 in cases, begin an apprenticeship and continue living at home while earning a lower apprentice wage. Housing costs, rent, groceries and many everyday expenses were also more affordable than they are in today’s times.
For many apprentices now, the reality is different. They may be paying rent, transport, groceries and bills while earning an apprentice wage – and at the same time trying to build the toolkit they need for their trade, but to be able to get the job done correctly.
We can’t solve those broader cost-of-living pressures with just one grant.
But we can help one apprentice with something we understand very well: TOOLS
Why $3,000 Towards Tools?
As jewellers, we rely on our tools every day.
Our benches are filled with files, saws, hammers, pliers, soldering torches, drills, verniers and various specialised tools. These tools are often not optional extras; they’re part of learning, practising and eventually mastering our trade.
And good tools can stay with you for a very long time! I still use many tools I first bought when I was an apprentice, many my father has passes onto me, so we cannot even find any more, so we share. Most of the tolls on my bench are at least 20 years old, some of my father’s tools are over 40 years old.
That’s why we chose to put $3,000 specifically towards tools and equipment rather than simply offering a cash prize. These tools will hopefully remain with you for many years to come.
For one apprentice, it may help build a better toolkit, replace equipment they’ve been getting by without, stop the need to borrow tools, or make an important purchase that would otherwise have to wait. Tools they can be proud of and encourage them to keep pushing forward.
We hope the benefit of these tools lasts well beyond the day the grant is awarded and tools received.
Why Is the Grant Open to Every Trade?
We could have restricted the grant to strictly apprentice jewellers. We deliberately chose not to.
This isn’t really about jewellery. It’s about supporting young Australian’s who have chosen to learn a trade.
An apprentice jeweller and an apprentice electrician may work with completely different materials, but both learn and develop their abilities through hands-on experience, guidance from experienced tradespeople and years of practice.
Whether someone is learning to make, build, install, repair, cook, maintain or create, there is real value in developing a practical skill and becoming good at it.
We think that’s worth supporting.
Remembering Where We Started
For more than four decades after my father established MDT DESIGN, it’s easy to look at the business today and see the finished jewellery, the Collins Street boutique and the workshop behind it.
But that’s not where the MDT DESIGN story began.
It began with an apprentice learning a trade.
My own career began in the same way.
The MDT DESIGN Australian Apprentice Tool Grant is our way of remembering our small beginnings, beginnings that grew into something bigger, and helping someone who is still near the beginning of theirs is our way of giving back.
We don’t know whether the winner will be a carpenter, mechanic, electrician, plumber, chef, jeweller or something completely different – and that’s one of the parts we love about it!
If $3,000 towards tools makes the journey a little easier for one Australian apprentice, and those tools help them develop skills they’ll carry throughout their working life, we think it’s money well spent.
If you’re currently completing a recognised Australian apprenticeship, we’d love to hear your story!
Learn more and apply for the $3,000 MDT DESIGN Australian Apprentice Tool Grant.
