An ACE apprentice

Meet Aimee Campbell.

Aimee is a young female spray-painting apprentice at the eco-friendly Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Docklands, Melbourne. She finds enormous passion in a job historically the domain of men.

ACE is a new multi-million dollar automotive learning and research centre that provides training for spray paiting, panel beating and body work. Read more here.

While Aimee is currently in the minority, being a woman in an automotive trade, the numbers of females taking on apprenticeships is increasing.

Manager of the ACE, Jeff Heaney, says the impression of trades as dirty and difficult to work in no longer applies, particulalry with improvements in technology.

Aimee says most of her apprenticeship is practical and she loves getting her skills up to a high standard.

"You have all the best equipment at your fingertips here. And the teachers here are fantastic," she says.

"They have really helped me every step of the way and increased my skill level in all aspects."

"The idea of starting and completing a job, and making an end product better than what you started with... that really wraps it all up for me"

As for the future, Aimee says she would love to move into restoration work.

"I'd love to open my own shop one day."