A pair of recently graduated Olds College students will travel to Leipzig, Germany, from July 2 to 7 to take part in the World Skills Competition in landscape architecture.
Jack Van Den Broek and Justin Schipper will be competing at the event against roughly 16 to 18 pairs of competitors from around the world. The pair of Lethbridge-area youth will be graded and judged on the same landscaping project as all the other teams. They will be given 20 hours over the four days of competition to build their project.
In contrast, the Canadian skills competitions in landscaping that the pair competed at – and won – in 2011 in Quebec and 2012 in Edmonton included five to seven teams from different provinces, with teams given 12 hours to complete their projects. In Quebec, Van Den Broek and Schipper built a patio with trees, shrubs and flowers, a water fountain and a retaining wall. In Edmonton, the pair built an angled path with a step up to a raised patio and fan-shaped parabola cascading over the patio with a bar in the middle.
“It's a way bigger competition (at the world event),” Van Den Broek, 20, said. “It's a huge deal. Before we started (the skills competition) we didn't know how big a deal it is. It makes us feel very happy (to compete),” he said.
In preparation for the world competition, the pair was working on a rock wall project at the Olds College Landscape Pavillion prior to departing for Vancouver to get more practice in at this year's Canadian Skills Competition from June 5 to 8.
“We're building the same project that all the other teams from all the other provinces are building, but we won't be judged with them. It's just for practice, for ourselves, to get better at whatever we need to,” said Schipper, 21.
Following the competition, Van Den Broek said the event went well, as the team concentrated on keeping distractions such as reporters to a minimum, perfecting their stone-laying technique and staying mentally focused.
“It was a lot of pressure, because we were the best in Canada. It was a lot of fun but it was good for us because there was a lot of media there this time,” he said.
Much like at the national competition, the pair will be working on trying to stay mentally focused at the international event, Van Den Broek said. He said if they manage to focus during practice, the time constraints of the competition shouldn't be such a worry.
Van Den Broek and Schipper recently completed the landscape program at the college. The program involves landscape design and irrigation, creating water features, plus learning about various types of plant diseases and how to treat them. It included studying on campus for two months at a time in four sessions, plus practical in-field work, as apprentices. Van Den Broek and Schipper completed the program in two years.
Van Den Broek said the advantage of competing and then going out into the workforce is that challenging fellow participants gives competitors the chance to be more precise in their work.
“It's easier to quote a job if you know how (long) it will take,” said Van Den Broek. “I think it gives me a lot more confidence (competing). Before this, I was always questioning doing something.”
Schipper agreed, saying the competitions are great preparation for the workforce.
“Your work is always quality work because you've been trained to do everything perfectly. You don't screw up as often because you've been trained to do almost everything,” said Schipper.
