Lethbridge College plumbing apprentice makes the countrywide podium
A first-year plumbing apprentice from Lethbridge College has won a silver medal in a nationwide competition. Danica Ferris has more.
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A first-12 months plumbing apprentice out of Lethbridge College has a national silver medal after competing in Halifax at the Skills Canada National Competition on May 30.
Nineteen-12 months-vintage Justin Dekok has best been trying his hand at plumbing for the final 12 months and a half, and he’s already turning heads in his selected trade.
“I turned into cabinetry for a long time — because I can keep in mind pretty an awful lot — and then my new boss, Ken, referred to as me and requested if I desired to strive out plumbing,” Dekok stated. “I became hesitant but determined to give it a shot, and I loved it inside the first month.”
His “now boss Ken” is Ken Howe, a local co-owner of Aquatech Plumbing and another Lethbridge product adorned on the countrywide—or even world—degree.
“Throughout Grade 10, 11, and 12, I competed in cabinet-making, and after that, I graduated and went into plumbing and began competing,” Howe stated. “From there, in 2013, I went to Nationals and located bronze.
“In 2014, I placed gold in Toronto and went directly to World Skills, which became in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2015, and I placed 11th out of 35 countries there.”
Howe met Dekok through a connection with his older brother, Rylan Dekok, who competed at World Skills.
“We first met once I became competing in World Skills,” Howe stated. “I became educated, and I ended up meeting any other competitor from Lethbridge here, his brother, Rylan Dekok. We each competed at World Skills.”
“I come from a trades circle of relatives,” Dekok said. “Everyone is predicted to be desirable, young, quite a great deal.
“My own family thinks it’s quite amazing, but I suppose they’re quite used to it because Rylan went via the whole procedure, too.”
A couple of years later, Howe convinced the more youthful Dekok brother to provide a plumbing attempt while he ran into him at a faculty task fair.
Because of his history, Howe is all too acquainted with the pressures involved in the Skills Canada competitions and the provincial competition in Alberta, and he’s been infinitely impressed with Dekok.
“He’s displayed a variety of talent, and simply the fact that he’s taking a day off work to compete in these competitions indicates plenty about his character and suggests his willpower to his profession.”
Howe said that the accomplishment is even more awesome when considering Dekok’s age.
“The distinction between the provincial competencies competition and the Nationals is, within the Provincials, there’s an age restriction of 21 in Alberta – and that’s just an Alberta requirement – whereas, in Nationals, he becomes up against 24-year-olds, there was one man there who was forty-two years antique,” he stated.
“He turned into up in opposition to human beings who’ve been doing it plenty long, and that’s what truly bowled over me along with his final results.”
Howe stated he believes Dekok has the best plumbing ability and is accessible in Hahere, Lincoln.
“[They did] a mock competition of a laundry room with some other furniture, and he did the drainage and waterlines,” Howe said. “It’s a 12-hour opposition, and what they surely focus on is safety, accuracy, and time management, and it’s an opposition that’s tough to complete inside the 12 hours, so you must be surely accurate while honestly hurrying.
“Each competitor is beneath numerous pressure. Not one competitor finished it a hundred in step with cent.”
Dekok turned into one of the closest competitors to completing the venture inside the 12-hour time body, and Howe said that it turned into the little things that Dekok does that were given to him on the podium.
“His interest in the line element and stand time control makes him sincerely excellent at plumbing. AManyppear; however, it’s an alternative that requires a lot of knowledge and mental capacity, several wondering to your toes, and lots of choice-making. I think that Justin has a variety of those qualities. It’s simply appropriate to peer.”
For Dekok, it’s the prepared nature of plumbing that he enjoys.
“It’s a gadget, and you could simply follow the system — the schematic — and on the quit, you may take a picture of it, which seems outstanding.”
The 19-year-old’s next goal is to qualify for the World Skills competition, which occurs each year. 2020 is the qualifying year, and the opposition is 2021 in Shanghai, China.
