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Like most of the Blue Dog team, VETiS trainer Chris Porter is mad about football.  Chris has also dabbled playing the game as part of the North Ipswich Tigers team.  Blue Dog Training have been longstanding supporters of the club, which is how Chris was introduced to our organisation.  He won two grand finals with the club, an experience that he said taught him a lot about working as a team.

It takes a dedicated, patient and motivated person to work with young people (especially teenagers!) and Chris has these characteristics in great abundance.  So when a position came up in our Vocational Education Training in Schools (VETiS) team last year, he applied for the role and has loved every minute since.

“I always wanted to work with young people as a school teacher, and it’s awesome to have utilised my carpentry trade skills to do that,” Chris said. “I’m teaching something that I learnt myself, and that I had practical experience with.”

Chris believes that students should consider doing a trade as a profession for a variety of reasons – the experience, being able to earn while you learn the trade and the multiple pathways to success.  In particular he emphasises that learning a trade is a ‘life-long skill’. 

“You learn practical skills that have long-term applications.  You can help your family with things that they need, and even early on in your trade, learn basic skills to help out around the house.”

“I always wanted to build my own house, and do my own maintenance on my house.” – and having a lot of mates/colleagues working in professional trades, we think Chris has a pretty good crew lined up to do that!

In his spare time, Chris enjoys keeping fit by going to the gym, and keeping active. He is a keen supporter of the Brisbane Broncos, and can be counted on to be cheering on the Broncs at every home game.  

His students might not know this, but Chris also has a bit of a musical streak, and is not shy about picking up a guitar or busting out into song (which happens in the BDT office more than you would think!).  His go-to karaoke song is Lover (You Don’t Treat Me No Good No More) by Sonia Dada, but we have also been treated to Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber and Usher (if he is feeling nostalgic).

Chris gets to travel to some remote places as part of the VETiS program, particularly the Western and Northern regions of Queensland.  If you see him travelling about in one of our Blue Dog utes, feel free to say hello!