Duchess Park student Garnet Grenon  does some  cutting in the cabinetry competition -photos 250News

Prince George, B.C.- It’s trades competition day at the College of New Caledonia,  and  40 students  from Prince George,  McBride and Quesnel  are  taking part.

The annual competition   has  secondary and post secondary trades students  do their best to replicate a  model , or solve a task within  a certain time frame.   In addition to competition in Welding, Carpentry, Culinary Arts, Automotive, Heavy duty mechanics, Machinist  and Cabinetry,  there is a special  project  for  nearly 100 elementary school students.

The students from the elementary schools have been tasked with creating  wind turbine blades.

Each team’s blade creation is tested  to see how much  voltage it can create  when  hit by  the air flow from a heavy duty fan.    The team  that creates the  most voltage would win the  competition.

Meantime,  in cabinetry,  students are creating a special step stool.  There is stiff competition in this  area as last year’s national  cabinetry 3rd place finisher Avery Bell

Avery Bell works on his project

( shown in photo at right ) is doing his best to  make it to the  nationals again.   The Grade 12 student  from Correlieu  High School  in Quesnel says  he is applying lessons from last year’s competition to this round “I grew confidence, and (learned) to just take it slow and easy.”

And while the competition is fierce,  so is the judging.  In Culinary Arts,  the College  welcomes  Garrett Blundell as a skills competition judge.  Not only is he a  culinary arts alumnus,  he has worked in two  restaurants owned by  chef Gordon Ramsay  and is currently the chef de cuisine at the Tableau restaurant  in Vancouver.

Last year,  there were  22 students who took part in the  competition,  this year,  the number has nearly doubled .

Dean of Trades  for CNC , Frank Rossi,  says  the day  will see more than  200 students  tour the facility  because today is also ‘Trades Day’ at CNC  “High School students will be coming through  our  doors taking a look at our events,  learning more about trades and being part of the  commotion we want to have during our competition.”  Commotion is important  says Rossi, as  it helps replicate the  level of activity and distraction on a work site.

While competitors have their own goals,   the  College is hoping  today’s exposure to the trades will convince  some students to decide to  enroll for trades training.