Once again, Powell River’s dual-credit students distinguished themselves and showed their high level of proficiency at a Skills Canada BC regional competition at Vancouver Island University’s Nanaimo campus February 22. The results were no surprise to Brooks Secondary School career education coordinator Jim Palm, who said the level of students and the instruction they receive is invariably high.
“The team was first class all the way and conducted themselves as young professionals in training,” he said.
The dual-credit program is a partnership between Brooks and VIU that allows high school students to graduate while also completing a VIU trade certification. This year, 13 students represented the community in carpentry, welding, hairdressing, auto service and culinary arts. In each competition students were given a task and time limit to complete it. Competitors were marked on different elements, including safe work practices, technique and final results.
“It was a great learning experience,” said welding competitor Jaden Leggett. “I learned how to use a type of machine I hadn’t used before.”
In auto service, Caelum Soprovich won gold and Eric Larson earned the silver medal. In carpentry Chris Chernoff achieved silver and Ben Viglasi won bronze. Inti Bergeron won gold in culinary arts.
“I had to cook a chicken cacciatore with a chocolate mousse, and fruit coulis with a cookie,” said Bergeron. “We had three hours to do it from beginning to end; it was pretty fun.”
As the time elapsed he started to feel the pressure.
“Near the end I was getting a bit stressed as the time limit reached five minutes,” he added.
Bergeron and Soprovich, accompanied by auto service instructor Ron Depape and culinary arts instructor Mike Austin, will now participate in Skills Canada provincial competition on April 17. If they win gold, they will continue on to the national competition in Halifax later in May.
Depape said what impressed him most about all the students was their work ethic and attitude.
“They prepared for it on their own,” he added. “They’re very self-motivated and it’s exciting to see them when they do well in this competition.”
Carpentry instructor Gary Huculak said the competition is the culmination of a year’s worth of learning.
“They do a project that pretty much takes in everything they’ve completed during the year. They have to frame a floor and walls on a small building and put a roof on it and rafters within a time limit,” he said. “It’s not easy. There’s quite a bit of math involved and they have to demonstrate they can use all these power tools safely.”
The competitions also serve as a recognition of the standard of training the students receive within the dual-credit program locally.
“When they do well at these competitions,” said Depape, “it means we’re doing something right.”
