A carpentry student from Vancouver Island University (VIU), Powell River campus, has advanced to the Skills Canada BC competition, beginning Wednesday, April 13, in Abbotsford, BC. Ben Kyle won a gold medal at the regional skills competition held in Nanaimo on Friday, March 4. If Kyle wins gold at the provincials, he advances to the national competition on June 5 to 8 in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Kyle is not the first VIU carpentry student from Powell River to advance to the BC finals. Four years ago, in 2012, Ben Perrault won gold at the provincial level and then a silver medal at the Skills Canada National Competition.
“VIU must be teaching the right thing,” said carpentry instructor Gary Huchulak.
Skills Canada BC promotes trade and technology careers, such as carpentry.
“I took woodshop at Brooks,” said Jason Simonetta, who won silver in carpentry. “I enjoyed it; I thought it would be a good career path.”
The Olympic-style competitions are governed nationally by Skills Canada, which began working with industry, educators, government and labour organizations 22 years ago.
VIU sent 20 students to the Vancouver Island central regionals, representing the schools’ five trades programs.
Along with Kyle and Simonetta in carpentry, other Powell River medalists included Andy Dupuis (silver) and Harley Lyngren (bronze) in auto service and Abraja Johnson (bronze) in hairdressing.
“It’s exciting, there were six carpentry competitors,” said Jonathon Bratseth, senior toolroom attendant and instructional assistant at VIU. “They’re given all the tools they need, a pile of lumber and a set of plans. They need to show up and be ready to go.”
Competitors have the same set of blueprints to build a garden shed and six hours to complete the task.
“You start with the floor, then frame your walls,” said Simonetta. “You do rafters and your roof; that’s the hard part because you have to know all the angles, all the slopes and notch it properly. It’s pretty difficult.”
Bratseth, who was also one of the judges, said the competitors had to keep a clean station and make sure they used all the safety knowledge they had been taught in class.
The project was judged on accuracy, how good the cuts were, the way they went together, and if it was done in the proper order.
“We went over it with a tape measure and checked everything,” said Bratseth. “It was good for students to see they can compete and that they’re just as good or better than other kids doing it.”
The biggest pressure they faced, according to Kyle and Simonetta, was the clock and a sense of urgency.
“Six hours seems like a lot of time, but it’s really not,” said Kyle. “You get a 30-minute break, but you’re not allowed to talk about the project.”
With only the one break during the competition, added Simonetta, “the time goes by pretty fast.”
