Local electrician finds way to spark

A 21-year-old Hawke's Bay apprentice electrician gained an impressive second placing at a national electrical industry challenge final in Christchurch last month.

It was an honour which Ryan Hill worked hard to gain - working at Heinz Wattie's for the past three years and due to finish his electrical apprenticeship in October.

He said it was the lure of a challenge that first sparked his interest in becoming an electrician. "I always wanted to do a trade, and I found I really liked the technical side of this job," he said.
The National Electrical Contractors Association of New Zealand (ECANZ) invited all senior domestic and industrial apprentices throughout New Zealand to enter the national competition, and applicants were narrowed down through preliminary rounds in more than 10 different locations.
 
To get to the final, competitors were required to put together a working simulation of an everyday application, which they were judged on.
Mr Hill was the only apprentice from Hawke's Bay to make it through that first round.

In Christchurch apprentices attended an electrical trade show and were challenged to put together a more complex and time consuming simulation. "There was electrical work, electrical testing, a board project,and some computer programming," Mr Hill said.

His second placing in the industrial apprentice's section, earned him a cash prize of $800 and a Telecom voucher worth $750.
 "It was a pretty intense, nerve-racking competition. I didn't expect that I would do that well," he said.