HEADLINES
CONA students prepare to head to Skills Canada competition
From The Labradorian – May
2000
CONA students prepare to head to Skills Canada competition
By: Cliff Wells
The College of the North Atlantic’s Happy Valley-Goose Bay campus sent four students to recent provincial skills competitions and they all came home draped in medals.
Job Sainsbury won silver at the automotive service competition in St. John’s March 25, Blaine Sheppard won the carpentry competition in St. John’s April 1, Raynold Kearney earned third place in the welding competition at Port-Aux-Basques on April 15; and Eddison Broomfield earned silver at the culinary arts competitions in Stephenville on April 16.
Mr. Sheppard said going to St. John’s was a good experience.
“It was challenging. The competition was really good. I was a little bit nervous at first, but you’ve got to work your way through it – don’t worry about what the next person’s doing.”
He said the competition consisted of making a lawn chair in six hours, which is a lot harder than it sounds.
“Six hours with a minimal amount of material is hard. You had to cut every piece of material perfectly, because you had no wastage. You had to make sure everything was perfect before you started cutting. Six hours seems like a long time, but it’s not a long time for what you had to do.”
Mr. Sheppard has earned the right to go to Quebec City to participate in the Skills Canada national competition June 2-6. He’ll be joined by former college student Lorne Green in the electrical wiring category, college student Randy Reardon in the industrial maintenance grouping.
Mr. Sheppard said Quebec will bring a new set of challenges.
“It’s going to be stiffer competition there, but I need to take my time, relax, work my way through it...and I shouldn’t have any problems.”
Mr. Reardon said his situation is a little different. He’s going to the national competition, although he didn’t compete at the provincial level.
“I got bye because there was only two of us competing in the provincial competition. They’re just going to send us on to Quebec.”
“It’s going to be hard. There’s going to be a lot of lined-up pumps and a lot of pumps and a lot of problem solving in the situation. I’m going to have to do hydraulics and pneumatics and make sure it works good.”
Mr. Reardon said working under the pressure of competition is something he would like to have under his belt for the nationals, but he’s been preparing in other ways.
“I’ve been practicing my stuff for a while making sure I know it. I wish I’d gone to the provincials; that way I’d have more of an idea of what it will be like.”
Photo Caption: Happy Valley-Goose Bay students at the College of the North Atlantic performed well at the recent skills competitions. From left, Randy Reardon, Raynold Kearney and Blaine Sheppard display pictures of a fellow student’s work at the culinary arts competition. Mr. Reardon is set to travel to Quebec City for the national industrial maintenance competition, while Mr. Sheppard will participate in the carpentry competition. Mr. Kearney placed third in the provincial welding competition.
CONA students prepare to head to Skills Canada competition
By: Cliff Wells
The College of the North Atlantic’s Happy Valley-Goose Bay campus sent four students to recent provincial skills competitions and they all came home draped in medals.
Job Sainsbury won silver at the automotive service competition in St. John’s March 25, Blaine Sheppard won the carpentry competition in St. John’s April 1, Raynold Kearney earned third place in the welding competition at Port-Aux-Basques on April 15; and Eddison Broomfield earned silver at the culinary arts competitions in Stephenville on April 16.
Mr. Sheppard said going to St. John’s was a good experience.
“It was challenging. The competition was really good. I was a little bit nervous at first, but you’ve got to work your way through it – don’t worry about what the next person’s doing.”
He said the competition consisted of making a lawn chair in six hours, which is a lot harder than it sounds.
“Six hours with a minimal amount of material is hard. You had to cut every piece of material perfectly, because you had no wastage. You had to make sure everything was perfect before you started cutting. Six hours seems like a long time, but it’s not a long time for what you had to do.”
Mr. Sheppard has earned the right to go to Quebec City to participate in the Skills Canada national competition June 2-6. He’ll be joined by former college student Lorne Green in the electrical wiring category, college student Randy Reardon in the industrial maintenance grouping.
Mr. Sheppard said Quebec will bring a new set of challenges.
“It’s going to be stiffer competition there, but I need to take my time, relax, work my way through it...and I shouldn’t have any problems.”
Mr. Reardon said his situation is a little different. He’s going to the national competition, although he didn’t compete at the provincial level.
“I got bye because there was only two of us competing in the provincial competition. They’re just going to send us on to Quebec.”
“It’s going to be hard. There’s going to be a lot of lined-up pumps and a lot of pumps and a lot of problem solving in the situation. I’m going to have to do hydraulics and pneumatics and make sure it works good.”
Mr. Reardon said working under the pressure of competition is something he would like to have under his belt for the nationals, but he’s been preparing in other ways.
“I’ve been practicing my stuff for a while making sure I know it. I wish I’d gone to the provincials; that way I’d have more of an idea of what it will be like.”
Photo Caption: Happy Valley-Goose Bay students at the College of the North Atlantic performed well at the recent skills competitions. From left, Randy Reardon, Raynold Kearney and Blaine Sheppard display pictures of a fellow student’s work at the culinary arts competition. Mr. Reardon is set to travel to Quebec City for the national industrial maintenance competition, while Mr. Sheppard will participate in the carpentry competition. Mr. Kearney placed third in the provincial welding competition.
