Master Electricians sparking interest in industry career

Master Electricians sparking interest in industry career

Young people considering a career in the electrical industry are being invited to watch the brightest young sparks in their region go head to head in the country’s toughest contest for apprentice electricians.

Throughout March and April electrical apprentices from across New Zealand will be competing in the regional knockout heats of the Master Electricians Challenge 2015.

The competition, now in its 14th year, is organised by Master Electricians and is famously tough, with organisers setting entrants a series of four separate one-hour practical challenges.

Master Electricians operations manager Bernie McLaughlin said the apprentices could face any task an electrician might encounter in the course of their day-to-day “The scenarios are designed to test that they can respond swiftly and efficiently to challenging tasks they may face in their working life,” said Mr McLaughlin“We have categories for domestic/commercial and industrial apprentices. The industrial category will be slanted towards programmable logic controllers and motors and motor starters. We are introducing more technology into the domestic/commercial category - so they could be doing anything from wiring through to programming lighting controllers.

“This year we have decided to invite people who are considering a career in the industry to come along and watch. It will give them a taste of how satisfying and stimulating the work can be and the skills they would gain during an apprenticeship.”

All the contestants will be apprentice electricians, mostly final year, who are combining on-job training with their employer with off-job training with the Training To qualify for the challenge apprentices must have at least 20-months on-job experience, have completed their level 2 ‘off-job’ training and still have been an apprentice on 1 March 2015.

Regional heats kick off in New Plymouth on 13 March, followed by Auckland, Rotorua, Napier, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch. About 100 apprentices are expected to take part countrywide.

Regional winners will be announced on the day of each challenge. Once all heats have been completed the ten top-scoring students overall will go forward to the national finals to be held in Hamilton from 26-28 May.

If you would like to attend one of the regional heats please call 0800 506688.For more information, or if you are an apprentice electrician who would like details of how to enter the challenge, see www.ecanz.org.nz.

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