Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services
Floyd Lucas-Baxter, a 19-year-old refrigeration and air conditioning apprentice, received a gold medal.
CIT students have claimed four medals at the WorldSkills national championships in Melbourne.
Thirteen students from the ACT, including 12 from CIT, qualified for the biennial ‘Skills Olympics’ that tests almost 500 of Australia’s best young trade students against each other in competition.
CIT’s Floyd Lucas-Baxter, a 19-year-old refrigeration and air conditioning apprentice, received a gold medal.
Cooper Camden-Smith received silver in wall and floor tiling, while Charlie Elms (cabinetmaking) and Lachlan Usher (plastering) each won bronze.
Liam Dowling was also recognised with a Certificate of Excellence in carpentry, while Rifaat Romzi received the Brody Young Star Award for the most potential creative dishes in cookery.
CIT’s Interim CEO Christine Robertson said it was a wonderful result for the students, their teachers and mentors, but also more broadly for the ACT.
“The ACT is grappling with a skills shortage, like elsewhere across the country, but these tremendous results reflect the CIT’s ongoing commitment to excellence in vocational education and training as we build the ACT’s workforce of the future,” Ms Robertson said.
“The ACT region is relatively small in population, but the proportionally big contingent we qualified for WorldSkills is testament to our ambitious student cohort and the exceptionally dedicated teachers who mentor them on their career pathways.”
Floyd Lucas-Baxter, 19 – a third-year apprentice with OCR ACT – said the three days of competition had sapped him of energy but filled him with confidence as he takes the next steps in his career.
“I was so tired by the end of it,” he said. “I’ve had harder physical days on the tools, but this was long days on your feet and there was no rest from thinking about the tasks. It was so hard, there was a time crunch, and in refrigeration you need to do things in a specific order of events or there’s no coming back. I had to be on point the whole time.”
Like his fellow medallists, Lucas-Baxter credited the support of his CIT teachers, his employers and his mentor for the World Skills competition.
“It’s taken a toll on them too, they’ve been so supportive to let me prepare,” he said.
“Refrigeration is clearly something I’m meant to do, and everything’s fallen into place.”
The ACT team
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