Meet Ashley L’Heureux

What trade are you in, and how long you have been working in the industry?
Ashley L’Heureux is qualified in Mechanical Engineering, Maintenance Engineering Level 4. She is now a Mechanical Pipeline Technician at FirstGas, Clarus, and has proudly been part of the industry for 5 years.

What was your previous career and how did you get into the trades?
Ashley says she is proof that it’s never too late to change your career. She attended both college and university in Canada, where she was born and raised, and has both her diploma as a Registered Veterinary Technician and a Bachelor of Science in Animal Biology.

She has worked at many different jobs in her life — some include summer student at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, cashier, waitress, bartender, horseback riding tour guide… she’s even worked with camels. Variety is the spice of life, Ashley says.

Before signing up for her apprenticeship, Ashley was working as a vet nurse. She says she loves animals, always has and always will, but knew that the industry she had dedicated most of her education to was no longer what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She had what they call ‘compassion fatigue’ and was looking for a change she could settle into for the remainder of her working career.

So, she hopped onto Seek and started her search. Stumbling upon the First Gas apprenticeship, she decided to apply — the rest is history.

How did you get into the Trades?
Having seen the ad on Seek, Ashley decided an apprenticeship was an amazing way to get into the industry. Not only was she going to be able to gain a free education, they were going to pay her while she was learning — much different from what she was used to with her previous education.

Ashley was contacted later about coming in for a group interview process. It was fun and different to what she had ever experienced… and then shortly after that she was offered an apprenticeship. How have you progressed in your career? Starting as an apprentice, Ashley became an assistant and then became a qualified mechanical pipeline technician.

What do you get up to day-to-day at work?
It’s so varied. Ashley says they do so much all over the North Island. In the first couple of years of her apprenticeship, she travelled quite often for work and was able to see quite a few sites and compressor stations, being exposed to different equipment and procedures.

She was a part of the pigging team (pipe cleaning) for 8 weeks, did a secondment with Entec to gain more mechanical experience associated with her apprenticeship for 8 weeks, and attended a couple of block courses through Competenz.

An average day can consist of meter runs and odourant runs, maintaining equipment that regulates the gas for distribution — for example: regulators, slam shuts, water bath heaters, pressure relief valves, main line valves, etc.

Who inspired you to choose this career?
Her hubby — he had been in the industry for many years before they met.

What challenges did you have to overcome to get to where you are? Ashley started from scratch, right from the bottom up. Because her background had nothing to do with this industry, there wasn’t much knowledge she could bring over. When she first started, she was teaching herself the names of tools. There was a huge learning curve to overcome.

She also thinks being an older apprentice, sometimes people subconsciously thought she would know things. Other than that, it was just the usual new job/new people hurdles — not much to overcome really.

What do you love most about your trade?
Being the boss of her own area and sites, being outside, and being on the tools.