Build Up Tassie program offers disadvantaged teens apprenticeship skills and a future

Tired of sitting at a desk, Cianna Fitzpatrick decided to swap school shoes for steel capped boots.

Becoming an apprentice carpenter meant a steep learning curve for the 16-year-old from Clarendon Vale, in Hobart’s east.

“Carpentry … I thought it was laying carpets and doing that kind of stuff,” Cianna said.

“But once I’d actually done some work experience I figured out that it’s actually building the frames of a house, the…