A Trade With Genuine Depth
Industrial electrical work in food and beverage manufacturing is a different discipline to domestic or commercial electrical work. An industrial electrician on an FMCG production line is not just wiring switchboards, they are fault finding on programmable logic controllers, tuning variable speed drives, commissioning new equipment, and keeping a live production line running safely under pressure. At BevTech, a family owned engineering business based in Richlands, Queensland, this trade has been built into a genuine career path rather than a static job. With over 25 years of experience specialising in the FMCG and beverage manufacturing sectors, BevTech has developed a structured route for electricians to grow from apprentice through to senior control systems specialist.
Starting Out: Apprenticeship and Trade Qualification
The foundation of an industrial electrical career is a standard four year electrical apprenticeship, combining a Certificate III in Electrotechnology with on the job training. What differs at a business like BevTech is the environment apprentices are exposed to from an early stage. Rather than being limited to general maintenance tasks, apprentices work alongside licensed electricians and control systems engineers on live production line projects, including PLC controlled equipment, motor control centres, and automated packaging machinery. This early exposure to industrial control systems, rather than purely domestic switchboard work, gives apprentices a significant head start once they are fully qualified.
Once licensed, a new industrial electrician typically spends time consolidating core skills: safe isolation procedures, motor and drive fault finding, cabling standards for harsh food and beverage environments, and basic programmable logic controller navigation. This period is about building the reliable fundamentals that everything else in an industrial electrical career is built upon.
Specialising in Industrial Control Systems
The next stage of the pathway is where an industrial electrician starts to separate from a general trade electrician. BevTech specialises in Allen Bradley and Siemens PLC platforms, and electricians who show aptitude are given the opportunity to move into control systems work: PLC and HMI programming, drive configuration, and automation integration. This typically involves structured internal mentoring alongside the company’s control system engineers, supported where useful by manufacturer specific training courses from Rockwell Automation and Siemens.
Electricians moving into this specialisation start with modifying existing programmes and troubleshooting logic faults, before progressing to writing new control logic for automation projects. Over time, this builds toward independently scoping, programming, and commissioning full automation upgrades, of the kind BevTech regularly delivers for glycol refrigeration control, hot water rinse and clean in place systems, and bottling and canning line integration.
Functional Safety as a Specialist Track
A distinctive part of BevTech’s career structure is the pathway into functional safety engineering. BevTech maintains TÜV certified functional safety engineering capability in house, which is a genuinely specialist skill set covering risk assessment, safety integrity level determination, and the design and validation of safety related control systems to standards such as AS/NZS 60204 and AS 4024. For electricians with strong analytical skills and an interest in compliance and risk, this represents a distinct senior career track, separate from but complementary to general controls work, and one that is increasingly in demand as FMCG plants face growing scrutiny of machine safety compliance.
A Typical Week on an FMCG Production Site
No two weeks look the same in this trade, which is part of its appeal. An industrial electrician at BevTech might spend a morning fault finding a fault on a canning line seamer, move to programming changes on a filler HMI in the afternoon, and be called out overnight as part of BevTech’s 24/7 electrical coverage roster to respond to a breakdown on a client’s production floor. Other weeks are dominated by planned project work: pulling cable and terminating control panels for a new automation installation, or supporting a scheduled shutdown where multiple trades are coordinating tight timelines to get a line back into production.
This variety is a genuine drawcard for tradespeople who want more than repetitive maintenance work. It also builds a breadth of practical experience that is difficult to gain in a narrower commercial or residential electrical career.
Career Progression Beyond the Tools
For electricians who want to move beyond hands on work over time, BevTech’s structure supports progression into team leadership, project coordination, and senior control systems engineering roles. Because BevTech is a family owned business with an in house machine shop and combined mechanical, electrical, and automation capability, senior electricians are often exposed to the commercial and project management side of engineering delivery earlier than they would be in a larger, more siloed organisation. This includes involvement in scoping client projects, coordinating with mechanical trades on turnkey deliveries, and building direct relationships with the manufacturing clients BevTech serves.
Why a Family Owned Business Changes the Experience
Being family owned and directly managed by its founding directors means BevTech’s electricians work closely with decision makers rather than navigating multiple layers of corporate management. Mentoring tends to be direct and hands on, career progression conversations happen with the people who actually decide on promotions and specialisation opportunities, and there is a genuine, longstanding culture of investing in tradespeople rather than treating them as interchangeable labour. For an electrician who wants their career development to be visible and responsive rather than buried in policy, this structure matters.
Recognition and Reward for Specialist Skills
As electricians progress through this pathway, their earning potential grows in step with their specialisation, reflecting the genuine scarcity of skills such as PLC programming across two major platforms, or TÜV certified functional safety engineering. This is a straightforward economic reality: businesses across the FMCG sector are competing for a limited pool of tradespeople who can genuinely work confidently on Allen Bradley and Siemens control systems, and those who build this depth of skill are rewarded accordingly, both in remuneration and in the seniority of the projects they are trusted to lead.
Recognition at BevTech is not limited to pay. Because the business is directly managed by its founding directors, strong performance and growing capability are visible and acknowledged in a way that can be harder to achieve in a larger organisation with multiple layers of management between a tradesperson and the people making decisions about their career.
Support Structures for New Starters
Moving from a standard commercial or residential electrical background into industrial FMCG work, or starting an apprenticeship in this environment for the first time, can feel daunting given the complexity of the equipment involved. BevTech addresses this through structured buddying with experienced tradespeople during the early months on site, gradual exposure to increasingly complex fault finding and programming tasks rather than being placed on the most difficult jobs immediately, and open access to senior engineers and functional safety specialists when a new starter needs guidance on an unfamiliar system. This support structure reflects a broader recognition that strong technical capability takes time to build properly, and that rushing a new starter into complex, safety critical work before they are ready serves nobody well.
Starting Your Career With BevTech
Whether you are considering an apprenticeship, currently qualified and looking to specialise in industrial control systems, or an experienced electrician wanting to move into functional safety or automation project work, BevTech offers a genuine long term pathway within the FMCG and beverage manufacturing sector. To find out more about current opportunities, get in touch with the BevTech team at 25 Silvio St, Richlands QLD 4077, or contact admin@bevtech.com.au.