A local high school woodworking student has an opportunity to make Squamish proud after earning a berth at the 16th Annual Provincial Skills Competition last week.
As the gold medal winner of the Northwest Lower Mainland B.C. Skills Competition in cabinet making and joinery, held at Howe Sound Secondary School Thursday March 25, Grade 12 student Dylan Baker will compete in provincials at the Abbotsford Tradex Centre on April 21. The winner of that competition will then move forward to the national level.
Although open to schools from the Howe Sound, North Vancouver, Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast, only Howe Sound Secondary students entered the regionals.
Two of the five competitors are currently completing Grade 12 courses in conjunction with the carpentry program the high school runs in partnership with Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Each competitor was given the same drawing of a box to be made within a four-hour time frame.
"It's not a huge project but it certainly has a lot of technical elements that they have to combine for the judging criteria," said Vicki Schenk, Howe Sound Secondary woodworking teacher and host of the event.
"They're all given the same wood to start with and if they need extra wood because they make a mistake they will get deductions. They have to plan very carefully. Both the judges are cabinet makers from the industry, so they know what to look for."
Volunteers from the community judged the student's work based on set criteria that included method and final product. They also judged the last B.C. Skills competition held in Squamish two years ago. One of the judges, local cabinetmaker Cam Cairns who owns and runs Garibaldi Woodworks, was more concerned with the process than the end result.
"We're stressing that they do it safely and watching and marking that they're getting the right techniques," he said. "It's not about the best cabinet, it's about the best technique and development."
Cairns said judging these competitions is a great way to scope out perspective employees. His shop currently has four employees, one of which he hired right out of the high school's woodworking program. He said he could already pick out some future employees. Cairns had no trouble letting the competitors know if they were working in an unsafe manner.
"I'm not giving instructions, I'm saving lives," he said.
Despite their obvious skill in the field, not all the competitors are looking at carpentry or woodworking as a long-term career.
Philip Tattersfield, who won the bronze medal, said he enjoys carpentry and thinks it will be a good summer job, but he wants to go to university for engineering. Corey Coop just returned from a youth RCMP camp and wants to pursue either policing or firefighting.
"I look at woodworking as more of a hobby," Coop said. "You need a year of post-secondary education [to get into firefighting or policing] so I'm using carpentry as a way to get into that."
His said his favourite piece of woodwork is the toolbox he made for himself, but the carpentry program focuses more on framing houses and larger projects.
"I'm just hoping to finish because I haven't taken any cabinet making classes," he said. "This is a learning process for me."
Nathan Webb, another local cabinetmaker who grew up in Squamish, said he was very impressed with the competitors. After only an hour of watching them work, he said, "a few of them definitely stand out."
"I actually learned all my fundamentals of woodworking in this shop," said Webb, who owns and operates Finishing Webb Woodworks in Squamish.
Theo Webber, the Grade 9 student who said he "started getting into woodworking when he was young," won the silver medal. He said he taught himself basic carpentry skills and some of his favourite accomplishments include a massive deck-style tree fort and a bike rack.
Skills Canada hopes to raise the profile of trades and technology as a viable and active career option for B.C. students by holding these types of competitions, according to the B.C. Skills website. The goal is to reward students for excellence, to directly involve industry in evaluating student performance and to keep training relevant to employer's needs.
Local community sponsors contributed to the event, with the Vancouver Community College Professional Cook 1 class supplying dinner, and Save on Foods and Starbucks Coffee donating refreshments.
