{"id":10750,"date":"2015-07-06T21:46:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T04:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=10750"},"modified":"2015-07-13T13:23:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T20:23:28","slug":"camosun-college-student-wins-gold-at-national-skills-canada-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2015\/07\/06\/camosun-college-student-wins-gold-at-national-skills-canada-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun College student wins gold at national Skills Canada competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

When he was offered the chance to compete in the Skills Canada national carpentry competition, Camosun College student James King didn\u2019t think he was quite up to the task. But King had been singled out by his teachers for his good work and the speed at which he got it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018Why me?\u2019 I\u2019m not the head of my class or anything,\u201d King admits.<\/p>\n

Turned out, the teachers knew what they were doing: with a little bit of coaching and support from them, King managed to snag a gold medal at the competition, held in Saskatoon in May.<\/p>\n

King, a Level 3 carpentry apprentice, was up against carpenters from across the country. Contestants had 12 hours spread over two days to build a child\u2019s playhouse. They arrived with a set of plans but were handed a surprise \u201cchange order\u201d of amendments which needed to be worked out on the fly.<\/p>\n

\"Camosun<\/a>
Camosun student James King recently took home gold at this national event (photo by Al Van Akker).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was very by the book,\u201d says King about the competition. \u201cThere were meetings beforehand with all the rules, and the judges were walking by you all the time. They were very strict.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that kind of pressure is part of King\u2019s day-to-day routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just treated it like I was going in for a day of work,\u201d he says. \u201cThe guys I work for are really smart carpenters. You have to be on the ball with them because they\u2019re always riding you. They\u2019ll catch any little mistake you make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun has a long history of competing, and winning, at the competition; the Carpentry department has been participating in the competition since 2002. A banner with King\u2019s name on it will be added to the already long line of medal winners hanging up above the woodshop floor at the Interurban campus.<\/p>\n

Camosun chair of architectural trades Al Van Akker has been coaching students for the Skills Canada competition for many years; he also acted as a judge this year. Van Akker sees these trades competitions as important venues to showcase essential skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey provide opportunities for individuals who excel to take their skills and their dedication and showcase them,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they give positive exposure to our trades programs, which benefits the college.\u201d<\/p>\n

But more importantly, says Van Akker, they provide a way of showcasing the value and excitement of a career in the trades to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s especially important to show youth,\u201d he says. \u201cIt provides them with a fun industry introduction to a whole bunch of different trades. The competition element makes it really engaging. It\u2019s not just a demo of some technique or job. Here are people competing, and that gives universal appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost all aspects of the trades are changing rapidly, with everything from cars to carpentry becoming more technologized. Van Akker worries that without greater public exposure, the trades might suffer because of an outdated schooling model because of all this change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe model used to be you were either in the academic stream or you were in the trades stream,\u201d he says. \u201cThat may have been appropriate 30 years ago, but it\u2019s not today. You look under the hood of a modern car and what do you see? Dozens of computers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Akker hopes that trades competitions like the Skills Canada nationals will raise awareness of the trades as an exciting and challenging career path for those who are looking for a more academic career as well.<\/p>\n

As for the gold-winning King, he says that when it comes to choosing a career path, when you see people working and you feel like you want to do that job, that\u2019s probably the job for you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re working a job that doesn\u2019t interest you, then you\u2019re only going to be so good,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to be another day\u2019s work, rather than something you can put your heart into and love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When he was offered the chance to compete in the Skills Canada national carpentry competition, Camosun College student James King didn\u2019t think he was quite up to the task. But King had been singled out by his teachers for his good work and the speed at which he got it done. \u201cI thought, \u2018Why me?\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-july-15-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10752,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions\/10752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}