Jamie excels at land-based challenge - April 2015

BRIGHT SPARK: Wanganui electrical apprentice and former WHS student Jamie Newell has won the regional heat in the annual Master's Electricians' Challenge.

Apprentice electrician Jamie Newell has been named Wanganui's top electrical services apprentice in theregional heats of the Master Electricians' Challenge.

The 21-year-old from Westmere was one of about 100 apprentices competing in regional heats around the country and the top 10 will go on to compete in the two-day final in Hamilton in May.

Jamie is currently working at Q-West boat builders in Castlecliff, where he is installing wiring in mono-hull, catamaran and tri hull boats.

"It's an area I love working in " I grew up around boats as my father owns a marine mechanic shop."

There were four wiring and testing challenges at the competition held at Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki in New Plymouth and Jamie won the Domestic/Commercial division while Max Lumb from Hawera won the Industrial division.

"We were faced with all sorts of things you might encounter in the course of domestic/commercial work," he said.

"It was a bit different for me because I work on boats which is quite different to most domestic or commercial settings."

Master Electricians operations manager Bernie McLaughlin said the calibre of entrants was extremely high.

"All the contestants are apprentice electricians, mostly final year, who are combining on-job training with their employer with off-job training with a training provider."

Jamie is in the second year of his apprenticeship with Etco, a subsidiary of Electrical Contractors of New Zealand which arranges placements and provides coaching and mentoring for apprentices.