Two students from Altona’s W.C. Miller Collegiate participated in the Skills Manitoba Competition earlier this month at Red River College Polytech's Notre Dame campus in Winnipeg. Both Wes Klippenstein and David Winkler placed, with Winkler receiving bronze in Carpentry and Klippenstein winning gold in Electrical Installation.
"It felt a little unexpected, but a very enjoyable accomplishment, I have to say," said the Grade 12 student Klippenstein. "You had this five foot mock up, with a couple studded up walls, and a piece of plywood. Then you had to mount a bunch of boxes that have switches and plugs and lights, and then mount a heater with a thermostat, a doorbell, too. Just a whole lot of electrical stuff you would typically see in a house."
This was Klippenstein's first time competing at Skills Manitoba. He's enrolled in the Electrical Technology course at Winkler's Northlands Parkway Collegiate through the RRTVA. Trent Krahn is his instructor. With the golden win, he will be moving on to compete at the Skills Canada Competition in Regina at the end of May.
"Probably finishing the project, that was the biggest accomplishment," he said. "I finished fifteen minutes before it was tools down, so it was just barely."
Klippenstein said the most challenging aspect was each competitor was intentionally given the wrong thermostat for the heater to be installed, so he had to work through how to make that ultimately work and install it properly.
"My dad and my uncle run a business, K Team Electric, and I've done some work with them, and I found that very enjoyable, so then I decided to try out electrical," explained Klippenstein on why he enrolled into a trade.
All eyes on May and Skills Canada
"I feel, definitely, some stress," he said with a smile. "We're going to be doing a lot of practice and preparing for this. My instructor has done this before, so he has kind of an idea of how it is, so definitely a lot of practice projects at home and at school."
For David Winkler, his experience was just as positive in the Carpentry category.
"It was very enjoyable, I liked it," he said. "It was a nice experience, and I think something good for my resume for my future work."
Competitors had six hours to build a children's playhouse from scratch, and he readily admitted he needed about five more minutes to get everything he wanted to get done completed.
"Probably the rafters," Winkler said regarding the most challenging part of the build. "They're usually the most complicated, so just figuring out the angles and the measurements."
Winkler is enrolled in the Carpentry program at W.C. Miller Collegiate through the RRTVA. Kevin Janz is his instructor.
Why try Skills Manitoba?
"My uncle had gone through it (Skills Manitoba), and he had won, so I always knew about it," shared Winkler. "When the teacher asked me, I was just like, sure, I'll give it a shot. It would be a nice thing to try."
Similar to Klippenstein, Winkler grew up in the trade, working with his father who has a carpentry business.
"I like seeing what I've done afterward, it's just a nice feeling you get there," he said. "It's always good to enlarge your scope of what you know. All the skilled trades, in my opinion, are valuable info to have, whichever one you go into. Just give it a try, and see how you like it."
Meanwhile, Harleen Tahim and Kailey Doerksen from Northlands Parkway Collegiate's Aesthetics program, led by instructor Brenda Richer, also competed at Skills Manitoba. Tahim received a silver and Doerksen a bronze.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Wes Klippenstein and David Winkler, below.