Top sparky aims to be best in world

Cameron Shailer will represent New Zealand at the 2015 Oceania WorldSkills competitions in Hamilton and Brazil. Photo / Stephen Parker

A Rotorua sparky will take on the best international tradespeople in Oceania next month.

Cameron Shailer, 21, will represent New Zealand in the Electrical Installations skill category of the Oceania WorldSkills competition in Hamilton.

He will then go on to the WorldSkills Competition in Brazil in August, which has competitors from 73 countries across 50 trades.

The representatives from New Zealand are called the Tool Blacks.

Mr Shailer, originally from the Manawatu, has been a qualified electrician since February and has lived in Rotorua since 2011.

He said he has been doing a lot of preparation for the hands-on competition, which will see him given an electrical installation project to work through over the two and a half days of the competition.

The project will be graded out of 600 marks at the end of the competition.

"This one has got a huge amount of preparation, it's two days a week and a week a month full time.

"It is a technical installation, you take the technical skills into a similar situation but do it a lot faster but with a lot of accuracy. It's quick thinking."

Mr Shailer is looking forward to the competition and has set his sights on winning, although he says that the other New Zealand competitors have a good chance of success as well.

"I want to win. I think I've got a good chance.

"It has been the plan right at the start, I saw the WorldSkills thing before I started my apprenticeship and thought that would be a cool thing to do.

"I am somewhat of a perfectionist - if it's not perfect I am not happy. It is attention to detail."

Mr Shailer came second in the Electrical Contractors Association of New Zealand Challenge for the country's top apprentice electrician in 2013, and came first last year.