Matthew Fenton and Ben Rainforth both brought home medals to RDP after competing in provincial and international skills demonstrations. (Supplied)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

FOUR PROVINCIAL MEDALS FOR 2024

RDP celebrates apprentice performances at 2024 skills competitions

Oct 10, 2024 | 10:02 AM

Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) celebrated its talented apprentices for their performance in the 2024 skills competitions in a Building on Excellence event October 9.

Throughout 2024, RDP apprentices earned one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals at the Skills Canada Alberta competition. Ben Rainforth, a welding apprentice, also earned a gold medal at Skills Canada National in 2023, the fifth straight gold for RDP. This led to an opportunity to compete in the WorldSkills Competition in Lyon, France, where Rainforth took home bronze.

“It’s felt pretty crazy. It was a long time coming; I’ve been competing in skills for six years now, so it’s kind of a dream I never really thought was possible and all of a sudden it became a reality,” Rainforth shared.

He competed against 38 countries at Worldskills and spent a year preparing, even travelling to Huntsville, Alabama for training competitions. Rainforth explained that competitors only get one shot at attending Worldskills, and as he has just aged out of the provincial and national competitions, his focus is turning to training future competitors.

Welding apprentice Matthew Fenton secured a bronze medal at the Skills Canada Alberta competition and has been welding for about two years, he shared.

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“It felt good, especially after all the time I spent on practice; I took about two months off of work just practicing here, so it felt good to [have it] pay off,” Fenton said.

The full list of achievements for Skills Canada Alberta 2024 is:

• Gold medal: Jesse Bennett, sprinkler system installations
• Silver medal: Ethan Swain, sprinkler system installations
• Bronze medal: Jared Quast, sprinkler system installations
• Bronze medal: Matthew Fenton, welding

These are in addition to Rainforth’s bronze medal at worlds.

Read more:

• Red Deer Polytechnic Apprentice earns gold at Skills Canada National Competition
• Red Deer Polytechnic apprentice to represent Canada at World Skills Competition
• RDP welder takes home bronze at international skill demonstration

“I want to convey how proud we are of the dedication and the time that these students put in. Some of these students, especially Ben going onto the world stage, it took a phenomenal amount of personal sacrifice of his time to prepare for it, but the reward is there,” commented David Pye, dean for the School of Trades and Technology at RDP. “It’s really inspiring to see students who come through our programs have that growth to the point where they can inspire the next group of students coming in.”

RDP officials say its apprentices consistently rank among the top post-secondary achievers in Alberta and across Canada. Since 2003, RDP apprentices have have earned 84 medals at Skills Canada Alberta and Skills Canada National competitions.

The next Post-Secondary Skills Canada Alberta competition will be held at the Edmonton EXPO Centre on May 7 and 8, 2025.

Banners will be hung in the school to commemorate the achievements of these apprentices. (rdenwsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

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