January 27, 2015
by Marcus Priaulx
University of Southern Queensland’s Tyson Knapp is feeling great about his future.
He’s about to qualify for the job his mother, Narelle, always believed he was made to do.
Tyson grew up on Northern Territory cattle stations where his father Wayne worked as a stockman. Then in 1999 the family moved to the South Burnett.
Wayne and Narelle began the Yanjarra Park stockhorse stud 20km outside of Kingaroy and Narelle worked at Gundoo Day Care in Cherbourg. Their children went to Murgon primary and high schools.
Tyson completed Year 12 at Kingaroy, worked at Swicker’s for five years, then went out working in the resources industry.
But his mother always thought he should be an engineer.
“She felt I was good at problem solving,” Tyson said.
“I’d always go see my supervisors with ideas and they’d say ‘oh, that’s the engineers’ department’.”
Tyson also found himself working beside engineers and carrying out their instructions at various mining sites.
Finally, at age 24, he decided to follow his dreams
Tyson enrolled in a Bachelor of Engineering Technology at USQ Toowoomba.
He worked part-time and lived in accommodation provided by the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program as he studied full-time.
He will complete his degree after he finishes a 10-week internship with DOF Subsea in Perth on February 13.
The company hires out sea vessels and installs oil and gas production equipment on the sea bed.
Tyson’s job involves writing procedures for the laying of oil flow lines on the ocean floor. He must also do calculations to enable the lifting of materials into and from the water.
He is also considering doing another year at university to get an Honours degree.
Looking back, Tyson said he was nervous before he started his studies four years ago.
“I’d forgotten a lot of the maths equations and physics,” he said.
“It was there but I’d just forgotten it. It all came back to me when I started using it again.”
Tyson hopes to get work overseeing large projects such as constructing roads, buildings, water management systems and whatever else a career in engineering provides.
He now encourages all people to get the best education they can so they’re able do the work they want to do.
“If people are thinking about uni I’d say give it a try,” he said.
“Once you start studying the introductory courses you’ll get an idea of what careers you could be doing and know whether you want to be there or not.”
And people not doing well at school should not lose heart.
“There’s always other doors to uni, such as bridging courses and tertiary preparation courses,” he said.
“People are looking to employ a well-educated and trained workforce.
“It’s the way of the future. It’s all out there. You just need to grab it.”
