Annabelle La Londe is building a career foundation on solid gold.
The Quesnel student just put together a win at the Skills Canada competition in Abbotsford where she competed in the millwright component of the multi-trade competition and will now go on to the national level.
“I knew of the skills competition because Dusty Cathcart from Quesnel had gone in the past and done well. So once I was almost done my foundations program I approached my instructor, Ryan Rahier, from the College of New Caledonia, and he got to work on figuring out what it would take to get me registered and ready to compete,” La Londe told The Observer.
The application process worked and on April 17, she got to take her spot at the work benches set up in the Abbotsford Trade and Exhibition Centre to determine who, among the skilled trades, would make up Team BC for the Skills Canada National Competition.
“Going in I was not expecting to win but I knew I was going to give the boys a run for their money,” she said. “I was the only female competitor in the Industrial Mechanic category, and I am only a foundations student, while my competitors were third year apprentices with thousands of hours of work experience.”
What she lacked in job site hours she made up for in dedicated preparation. On her own time, she would go into the college workshop at CNC and take apart the Radicon gearbox that would be featured in the competition, reassembling it over and over again.
She also worked on checking and adjusting gear mesh patterns, practiced precision shaft alignment with a laser alignment tool, and rehearsed the fundamentals of the profession.
“I believe that being able to come out on top as a foundations student says a lot about my ability to think things through and pay very close attention to detail, but it also shows how good of an instructor Ryan is,” La Londe said. “That is clearly proven in the fact that his first-year student was able to beat out guys with far more experience and more education under their belts.”
There’s a gold medal around her neck, for all that effort and commitment, but it’s right back to the practice bench. The national competition has four main segments “and they require more knowledge and skills from the higher levels of an apprenticeship,” she said, but this is not a challenge she’s facing alone.
“I have many people supporting me behind the scenes and I have so much gratitude for them all.”
The national competition is held May 29-June 1 in Quebec City.
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