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NWT Skills team brings home gold Aurora College student wins electrical competition
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, June 14, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The NWT Skills team brought home gold in electrical installations after 16 young people went to Vancouver last week to represent the territory in the 19th annual Skills Canada National Competition.
Richard Neary competes in the electrical field at the Skills Canada National Skills Competition in Vancouver last week. - photo courtesy of Skills Canada NWT |
The competition tests apprentices in trades programs on their ability and recognizes the best in the country.
Yellowknifer Richard Neary, a 22-year-old originally from B.C., was the gold medalist after a two-day competition which tested his ability in residential and industrial electrical work.
Each day he had a different project to complete. Both competitions were done in a small area that he had to himself while he demonstrated his ability.
He said he was surprised to win the gold.
"It was a great sense of accomplishment," said Neary, who has been an electrical apprentice since 2009.
He also won the Best of Region medal for the NWT.
Neary moved to Yellowknife three years ago to continue his studies at Aurora College. He will finish his apprenticeship by December of this year and become a journeyman electrician, meaning he cannot compete in next year's competition.
One of the event organizers turned him on to the national competition, said Neary, adding it was a great experience for him.
Aimee Yurris was another Yellowknife student who competed. She placed fourth overall in the bakery competition.
This was the 15th year a team from the Northwest Territories has competed in the event.
All of the competitors first had to win gold at the NWT Skills Competition in order to go to nationals. Jan Fullerton, executive director of Skills Canada NWT, said there was a significant difference between the territorial and national competitions.
"For someone going their first time to nationals it's a bit overwhelming," she said. "The attitude of the team was generally pretty good. There was a lot of stress, a lot of fatigue and a lot to take it in, though."
Fullerton said she watched Neary compete.
"It's always kind of interesting to watch since I'm not an expert in any of the fields," she said. "I was looking at what he was doing compared to others. Sometimes it would look like he had less done, but that it was more correct."
The competition gives youth a chance to show off their abilities, network with others in their field from across the country, and learn new things to bring back to the territory, she said. It also gives the competitors a chance to show other Canadians how things are done in the North.
"It's nice to see we have a lot of ambassadors for the NWT with positive attitudes, who want to learn and bring it back to the territory," said Fullerton.
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