Competition wraps up for 2023

Since July, apprentices across the country have been showcasing their skills at the Wallie Askew Memorial Worldskills Competition

From the Northern regional challenge, to the Central and Southern regional challenges, the finalists have recently completed the final competition, held at Steelfort in Palmerston North.

With the same impressive performance seen at the Northern regionals, Alex Arnold from White Refrigeration finished in first place. Jack Butler from Active Refrigeration – who placed first at the Central regional competition – was awarded second place.

Placing third was Koenraad Mullis from McAlpine Hussmann; Daniel Thompson (Shannon Refrigeration), Liam McVicar (McAlpine Hussmann) and Matthew Weir (McAlpine Hussmann) also showed exceptional knowledge and workmanship across the two-day event.

“If you have apprentices that are at the qualifying stage for the comp, we will always encourage apprentices to take part,” says Annemarie Begg, managing director at White Refrigeration.

“White Refrigeration has had many apprentices participate in the Wallie Askew competition, some with great results – it is a great opportunity to see where they benchmark themselves against others in similar stages of an apprenticeship. All staff are supportive of our apprentices, and if they qualify to compete the sense of achievement is a proud moment.”

For Phil Mohan, IRHACE president, the highlight of the competition each year is exactly that: seeing the comradery between the apprentices and those there to support them. “The amount of supporters that came along was huge. It was really great to see the way everyone all came together,” he says.

Supporting the industry for our apprentices

“This is a great industry to get into. Often young people haven’t even heard about our trade – it’s plumbers, electricians and builders that get talked about,” says Annemarie, who urges more companies and business owners to view the apprenticeship pathway as an opportunity to teach their skills to someone who is keen to learn.

“Once qualified and they have experience under their belt, they have so many options to develop.”

“Our industry really comes together and to see that there are lots of companies putting a lot of time into young people joining the industry and helping those young people excel is fantastic,” adds Phil.

“The level of learning that the apprentices get out of it is fantastic. We’re really proud of the team that’s continuing this event and we’re really proud of the effort that goes into it.”

WorldSkills New Zealand’s operations coordinator, Sally Gray, also came along to support the apprentices and says it was great to see the strong industry support for the competition and see the six competitors perform across HVAC&R disciplines – under time pressure and the watchful eye of judges.

Special thanks to our major sponsor Realcold support from CCCANZ, ACSL Group, BDT and SIT for hosting the regional challenges, Steelfort for hosting the final competition, and equipment supplied by Refspecs.

Following on from this highly successful competition, WorldSkills New Zealand and IRHACE will begin the process of considering a candidate to represent New Zealand at the WorldSkills International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Competition in Lyon, France, next year.

“Thank you to the team and sponsors for their generosity, because it’s for our young apprentices coming through and for the greater good of our industry. It’s only a good thing and we’re so thankful for the time, effort and assistance,” adds Phil.

“Our industry really comes together and to see that there are lots of companies putting a lot of time into young people joining the industry and helping those young people excel is fantastic,” adds Phil.