STUDENTS, trainees and apprentices from across the New England region have shone at the nation’s largest skill and trade showcase, returning to Tamworth yesterday with a medal haul worthy of a team twice the size.
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A team of eight TAFE New England and Vocational Educational Training in Schools (VETiS) students returned from the three-day WorldSkills Australia National Competition in Perth with two golds and a bronze medal, and each of the group securing a top four finish, sometimes only missing first place by a handful of points.
Moree’s Kane Girard claimed gold in the auto electrical section, while Gunnedah High student Lucy Whitehurst took out top spot in VETiS Commercial Cookery.
Armidale student Alex Cormack wore home the bronze from the VETiS Metal and Engineering.
Regional VETiS and WorldSkills coordinator Kate Dubois said it was an outstanding achievement from a comparatively small team.
“They proved themselves to be so competitive and have worked so hard to get to this point,” she said, also praising the teachers who assisted in the months of preparation.
“For them to be competing against much larger regions and teams, and come back with a result like this is outstanding.”
Kane works for A1 Auto Electrics in Moree and by winning gold at WorldSkills has emulated the achievement of boss Chris Crouch, who claimed the same title at WorldSkills.
His victory though was bittersweet, slightly tempered by the memory of friend and workmate Brandon Roberts, who died in a farm accident almost 12 months ago at Warialda and had been initially chosen as the auto electrical representative on the TAFE New England team.
So, Kane’s gold is as much for him as it is for Brandon and his family, who gave him his mate’s neck chain and ring to take to Perth for good luck.
“I’ve got no doubt he would have won the gold for sure,” Kane said yesterday.
Gunnedah High’s Lucy Whitehurst will also have a story to tell her friends when school returns in a fortnight, enduring three days of six-hour cooking sessions the equivalent of a MasterChef showdown.
For Lucy though, who loves to cook and has ambitions of a hospitality management role, it was all in a day’s work.
“I was really worried about the pressure going into it, but when I got there it was a lot less stressful than I’d thought - the judges were really helpful,” she said.
This year’s WorldSkills - held every two years with regional competitions in between - showcased the talents of 500 young people competing for the title of “Nation’s Best” in more than 50 skill and trade areas ranging from the plumbing and bricklaying to web design and fashion technology.