Samantha Hurford was the first cab off the rank for Major Convos Trainer Series.
The Manufacturing and Engineering Trainer and Assessor at Major Training shared her story about growing up on a hobby farm, a decade in fitting and turning, and what it actually takes to become a trades trainer.
Sam’s story covers a tough first apprenticeship, the mentors who taught her to write G-code by hand, and why she still gets mistaken for a first-year apprentice despite nearly ten years in the trade.
It is a candid, funny and genuinely useful episode for anyone weighing up an apprenticeship, or anyone supervising one.
Show notes with timestamps
04:46 Sam’s real spark came from her dad, who taught her to weld on their six-acre hobby farm while fixing mowers and farm equipment together.
05:46 At school, Sam gravitated toward every hands-on subject on offer: design technology, metalwork, welding, computer arts, and vocational courses in automotive mechanics and boiler-making.
06:23 Sam’s dad is a saddler by trade, a leatherworker who once made saddles in Penrith and Sydney. Pattern making, marking out, and mathematics were skills he passed down long before she needed them in engineering.
10:24 Sam eventually quit the boiler-making role. Her mum’s response to sick days and injuries was simple: you show up anyway. Sam credits this now for the resilience and work ethic she carries into her career.
15:00 A wider conversation about how difficult it is for young people to picture engineering careers compared with trades like carpentry, given how many different pathways sit under the one banner: fabrication, sheet metal, boiler-making, fitting, and machining.
17:34 Mentorship comes up. Dave taught Sam to hand write G-code while she was on light duties recovering from a motorbike accident, a skill most machinists never learn because modern CAD and CAM software does the work for them.
26:49 Sam recalls being told outright by a business owner that she would not get a job unless she could lift a fire hydrant hose, a stark example of the barriers women in trades have faced.
36:38 A conversation about what parents and schools could do differently: encouraging kids to ask more questions and seek out trade experiences most will never otherwise be exposed to.
39:40 Sam confirms she left school partway through year twelve to start her apprenticeship in 2017, backed by her mum’s early registration for a vocational course.
43:05 Sam describes her first day training a student, describing herself before her training career as a quiet, heads down machinist, in her words like a gremlin in the corner of a workshop just pressing buttons.
49:03 A candid discussion about the impact supervisors have on apprentice motivation, and how a steady diet of negative feedback alone can push an apprentice toward quitting.
53:06 Sam’s advice to anyone considering a move from tradesperson to trainer: back yourself and go for it and know that you get to stay connected to the trade while also watching apprentices grow.
If Sam’s story about turning steel into a mirror finish, or her mum’s no excuses approach to showing up, sounds like something you needed to hear today, the full episode is well worth your next commute.
Listen to this episode through Spotify today.
