Abbi cements her place as Tassie’s top apprentice plasterer

TasTAFE 4th-year apprentice plasterer Abbi O’Connor has won the 2025/26 AWCI Tasmania Apprentice Challenge.

TasTAFE 4th-year apprentice plasterer Abbi O’Connor has won the 2025/26 Association of Wall and Ceiling Industries (AWCI) Tasmania Apprentice Challenge.

Held annually, this competition is designed to showcase and celebrate the best and brightest apprentices in the industry across Australia and New Zealand.

Abbi competed against a group of talented Tasmanian plastering apprentices at TasTAFE’s Clarence Campus, where each apprentice had to construct a framed internal structure comprising metal stud walls and ceiling to exact specifications. Each project was judged against Australian Standards, quality of workmanship and safety compliance.

“Apprentices in each state build the same project to the same specifications and within the same timeframe. The completed projects are judged against a national criterion to find the best apprentice plasterer in each state,” explained TasTAFE Plastering Teacher, Danny Wolfe.

“The Challenge generates a bit of competitiveness between our apprentices. It helps improve their skills and strive to be better tradespeople.”

Based in Burnie and working for Plaster Designs in Wivenhoe, Abbi enjoys the physicality and variety of working in the plastering trade.

“I started my apprenticeship in 2019, and after a short break, signed up again in 2023 and just fell in love with it!” Abbi said.

“I really enjoy the hard work and heavy lifting, and every job you go to is different – I quite enjoy that.”

Starting a career in a traditionally male-dominated trade didn’t worry Abbi, and she hopes to see more women take up a profession in the trades.

“It’s all good – there’s no drama, everyone’s easy to get along with and the men are respectful to the women. Over time your body gets conditioned to the work environment and the stuff you’ve got to do. Hopefully I can inspire other women of the world to come in and join us.”

Abbi will attend the AWCI Awards night in Melbourne in October where the winning scores from each state winner are compiled and a national winner is announced. She thanked TasTAFE’s teaching staff Danny Wolfe, Mark Ransley and Julian Sturzaker for helping her over the past 3 years and hasn’t ruled out returning to TasTAFE as a teacher in the future.

“Danny, Mark and Julian have been great; they’ve all been fantastic,” Abbi said.

“I did make a joke with Danny that in 20 years he’ll be retired so I could come back and teach. I would enjoy teaching, but I might be a little hard on the students!”

Tasmania Apprentice Challenge runner-up Luis Jenkins, also a TasTAFE learner, will join Abbi in Cairns later this month to compete in the AWCI National Challenge competition.

Check out TasTAFE’s Certificate III in Wall and Ceiling Lining qualification and pre-apprenticeship training courses in plastering.

TasTAFE apprentice plasterer Luis Jenkins is the runner-up in the 2025/26 AWCI Tasmania Apprentice Challenge.