Patrick Brennan

In spite of COVID-19 constraints and a surprise simply call-up to the competitors, Cameron Harrison has brought household a different gold medal for Queensland in the WorldSkills Australia Nationwide Championships.

Harrison was midway by way of his closing block of TAFE in his Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration when lead lecturer Carl Balke tapped him on the shoulder. The Brisbane competitor for the WorldSkills Nationals in refrigeration and air conditioning could no longer contend – would Cameron step in?

Balke has an eye for WorldSkills expertise, owning labored with many profitable students around the decades, together with Patrick Brennan, who won bronze in the WorldSkills international match in 2019. Harrison approved the obstacle, and begun teaching.

“Every Friday foremost up to the level of competition I would go in for 50 percent a day to a working day, and do instruction with Carl and exercise the abilities that he believed had been needed,” suggests Harrison. His employer, Specialized Refrigeration Expert services, supported the exertion by offering him the Fridays off.

At the exact time he was preparing for his capstone.

“Carl wanted me to get the capstone done to start with,” claims Harrison. “The way he sees it is the capstone prepares you for WorldSkills, due to the fact it is comparable force, but you’ve bought a ton a lot more to do.”

In spite of all the preparation, the prospect of competing was still challenging.

“I was fairly nervous,” Harrison admits. “I did not actually know what to be expecting. I experienced competed in regional WorldSkills for my Cert II in Electrotechnology but I hadn’t competed in WorldSkills if not.”

On leading of this, the opposition was working in a modified structure owing to COVID-19 constraints, with some contenders functioning and remaining judged remotely. It was new territory for every person.

For Harrison, the greatest obstacle was the significant job – bending up the identify of the sponsor, Kirby, out of a single piece of pipe, commissioning and environment the superheat and subcooling inside of the time limit.

The fault-locating, on the other hand, he describes as “fun”.

“That was in all probability my favorite section,” says Harrison, and provides that it is one of his favorite parts of the occupation.

“I discover it gratifying,” he states. “You get to website not knowing what the fault is, and you have just received to figure it out primarily based on what the customer tells you and what you can see the procedure is executing.”

In some approaches, acquiring the faults went a lot more efficiently than obtaining out he experienced truly won the gold medal. Winners were being introduced on a Wednesday night time – but Harrison was anticipating the success on the Thursday.

“I was in fact out for supper with my girlfriend, and I got a textual content from Carl and one of the other guys I competed with,” Harrison claims. “All of sudden I started out obtaining all these texts from men and women stating congratulations, you gained gold, and I experienced no thought what they were being speaking about!”

He was on connect with, so could not have a drink to rejoice. But because then, he has had a likelihood to toast the victory, and ponder his WorldSkills long run – possibly the upcoming competitiveness in Shanghai.

“Due to COVID-19 and anything which is going on all over the entire world, they’re not way too positive what is going to come about with the variety approach and whether or not Shanghai will go in advance or not,” says Cameron.

“I’m even now a bit doubtful mainly because it all arrived as a shock – I wasn’t expecting to get gold, so I’m nonetheless taking it in. But it’s something I’m quite keen to do.”

The winners from the WorldSkills Australia National Championships in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning are:

• Gold – Cameron Harrison, Queensland – Brisbane
• Silver – Ryan Hanns, Australian Funds Territory – Canberra
• Bronze – Tom Clancy, Western Australia – Perth South
• Certification of Excellence – Jared Tesch, Queensland – North Queensland

For more info about WorldSkills, go to www.worldskills.org.au

Picture courtesy of WorldSkills Australia.