By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Osoyoos Secondary School Grade 12 student Tucker Macor has returned from the Skills Canada National Competition 2024 in Quebec City with a Gold medal for his outstanding performance in the Electronics category.
The two-day competition took place on May 30-31 and featured over 500 competitors from across Canada competing in over 40 skilled trade and technology Skill Areas for the opportunity to be named the best in the country, in their chosen field. Nearly 6,000 students and visiting public also attended.
Speaking to the Times Chronicle, Macor said that although he has been successful in both regional and provincial competitions, the size of the Skills Canada competition was impressive.
“The scale of the event is a lot bigger. So it’s pretty exciting to just be there because of just how big everything is.”
Macor was there as part of the BC contingent which was about 50 people he said. In his category, there were six people competing.
The gruelling competition involved four hours in the morning and another four hour session after lunch on both days amounting to 16 hours of competition which he says was pretty exhausting by the end of it.
As part of the competition, Macor said he and his competitors were given a breadboard circuit and a bunch of electronics which they then had to assemble. “We were then graded on how logically it’s laid out and how nice and neat it is and if it works properly.”
Another section involved being given a printed circuit board which they then had to solder components to. “And then there was a section for fault finding where they give us something with a problem and we have to point out what the problem is, how that problem affects his operation and how to fix it.”
And yet another section involved being given a circuit board where certain parts had to be removed and replaced without being able to tell that anything had been done to the circuit board.
“During each of those different categories there were also theory questions on it,” he adds noting that was his weak spot.
“My biggest challenge was the theory because that’s stuff that people would have gotten out of being an electronics classes and such but that’s the thing I didn’t have,” he says. Being a small secondary school OSS doesn’t offer electronics, but apparently, that was only a minor obstacle for Macor as he still walked away with the gold.
As for his future Macor says, “I’m super interested in electronics engineering and computer science a little bit, I’m looking at that kind of stuff. I’ve just always found electronic stuff super interesting,” he said, adding that it’s “problem solving” in the electronics realm that really interests him.
Oh and before you ask, yes he’s one of those kids who grew up taking stuff around the house apart and (successfully) putting it back together again.
And while university will likely be in the cards if he chooses to pursue a career in those fields, for now he has no concrete plans.
Macor also expressed his appreciation to OSS’ Boyd Turnbull who teaches Metal Shop, Woods, Automotive, Technology, A&W Math, and Robotics who took him to Quebec City for the competition, as well as the Town of Osoyoos for a $500 grant to help with travel expenses.
