Former AFL player Jeremy McGovern recently joined the bi-annual ASA staff conference to discuss his career journey after retiring from being a professional sportsperson. He talked about how he applied lessons from his AFL career to starting his plumbing business and why hiring apprentices helps business growth and community development.
Tell us a bit about your journey into professional football and what led you to pursue a plumbing career?
I started a plumbing business with my best mate , and we’ve slowly grown from there. The construction trade has always been my passion.
How did your football career help shape your work ethic and mindset?
We need everyone in different roles and different responsibilities within the team and the club to fulfill that dream of winning games and then premierships.
And it’s very much the same within business. We try to make sure everyone gets the best out of themselves, which then helps contribute to the greater good.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in transitioning from sport to skilled trade?
Adapting to a completely different lifestyle is the most challenging, and also taking all the learnings from football, that team environment, and trying to employ them as much as I can within the business.
As a business owner who hires apprentices, what qualities are you looking for in potential apprentices?
The biggest thing that that we look for is work ethic. If people are willing to take pride in the trade that they’re doing, and they want to work hard for us, that’s a recipe to becoming a good tradesperson.
What advice would you give other business owners looking to hire apprentices in the industry?
The younger generation is different, and not in a bad way. Trying to embrace the different changes and challenges that comes with it but also trying to get a better understanding of the younger generation coming through. Working with them but also getting the best at them at the same time.
How would you describe the benefits of hiring apprentices for your business growth?
I think there’s benefits to both businesses and apprentices. But for us as an organisation, we pride ourselves on supporting our apprentices to become well-rounded plumbers or electricians so they can get the best out of themselves. And if they do that, that obviously helps the business as well. I think it should be everyone’s obligation to try and give back to an area that we all probably started out.
