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Okanagan College (OC) students and apprentices Connor McLaren, Lukas Pfod and Bradley Vanlerberg stepped to the top of the podium in this weekend’s provincial Skills Canada competition in Abbotsford and solidified a spot in the National competition in June.
The trio was among the 14 OC students and apprentices that attended the event on April 18, which gleaned a collective eight medals to bring home to the Okanagan.
Each year, the Skills Canada competition congregates secondary and post-secondary students and apprentices from across British Columbia to participate in a series of challenges distinct to each of the 47 different disciplines in the competition.
Pfod returned to Skills Canada's provincials this year to win his fourth overall medal in carpentry and his second consecutive gold medal. He will be continuing onto nationals in June for his second year in a row.
Pfod notes that his gold-medal efforts aren’t without assistance from his OC instructors. “They’ve supported me and gone beyond showing me just the basics of carpentry.”
McLaren was surprised to be brandishing the gold medal at the end of the day, worried that he had stumbled on a couple of the six stations in the Automotive Service event, but was happy to come out on top. Mclaren’s classmate, Levi Nicholas, also placed in the event, joining McLaren on the podium with a silver medal in the same category.
Vanlerberg, 18, is convinced it was the exam portion of the Aerospace Technology category that gave him the extra edge against his opponents and led him to gold. Like the other gold medalists, he will be continuing onto Nationals taking place in Edmonton in June.
Steve Moores, the Okanagan College Dean of Trades and Apprenticeships, is proud of the OC’s commitment to its students, but doesn’t allow that to detract from the impressive accomplishments of their students.
“They work with their instructors over long hours to prepare for these competitions. It’s a commitment on behalf of the instructors,” said Moores. “But it all comes down to the students’ skills and abilities.”
Along with the three gold medalists, OC brought home silver in both Heavy Equipment Service (Kian Banner) and Aerospace Technology (Levi Nicholas) as well as bronze in IT Network Systems (Frank Van Zandwijk), Refrigeration (Adam Sohnchen) and Culinary Arts (Siobhan Detkavich).
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