Two of the region’s vocational students excelled and earned honours recently at a national competition.
W.C. Miller Collegiate student Brady Peters won a gold medal in the carpentry competition at the Skills Canada competition May 28-29 in Toronto, while Colton Pedersen, who is based out of Morden Collegiate but studies electrical technology at Northlands Parkway Collegiate in Winkler, earned a silver medal in the electrical installations category.
Supplied Photos
Brady Peters (left) and Colton Pedersen (right) came home from the Skills Canada competition last month with a gold and a silver medal, respectively
Peters said it was a challenging but good experience.
“I feel it went really good. It was really fun,” he said. “When I got there, it felt like I was really nervous, but after I got into the competition I was just locked on what I had to do. I felt no nervousness at all. I just got it done.
Now in Grade 11, Peters is looking at this as a career.
“I’m working with my dad right now,” he said, noting his father operates Open Country Mechanical and Electrical. “This summer I’m working for him … and then after I’m done high school, I’m going to Red River College for my second level.”
He reflected on what he likes about doing this kind of work.
“You get to work with your brain and with your hands,” said Peters. “I’m always thinking, always working through the challenges, always trying to just get it done right. I’m In my own zone, trying to figure it all out in my head.”
Pedersen also said it was a good experience.
“There were so many people, and it was pretty cool. There were lots of people just walking around and coming to watch and taking pictures of everything else going on,” he said. “The hard part is staying on my task and not getting sidetracked by everything that was going on. I had to just be able to focus and block out all the other commotion.
“We had to build a small playhouse about four by eight feet and about four feet tall. And I just had three walls with a roof and a railing on the front little front porch.”
It was about 12 hours of work spread out over two days.
“It went pretty good. I worked as fast as I could the whole time,” Pedersen said. “I missed one board on the bottom, but I knew that I had done the best I can, and the rest was out of my control.”
Pedersen also sees this as being a career option for him.
“Either this or farming,” he said.
“It was really fun,” Pedersen added. “I got to meet a lot of people, which was pretty cool and different … and I talked to a bunch of guys from different trades and professions.”
