College proves pipeline to success for local plumber

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on June 10, 2022.

Submitted photo Joshua Mandin stands beside the completed project that earned him first place in the Provincial Skills Canada Competition plumbing category last month in Edmonton.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

A local second-year plumber has won a gold medal in the Skills Canada competition and will be representing Canada at the next level.
After winning the Provincial Skills Canada Competition in early May 2022 representing Lethbridge College in Edmonton, Joshua Mandin went on to win gold at the national level just a few weeks later in Vancouver earning the opportunity to represent Canada in the plumbing category in the WorldSkills Competition which is set to take place in Shanghai in October.
“During my first year schooling in January one of my instructors Jeremy Bridge pulled me aside and asked me if I would be willing to compete for Alberta skills competition for plumbing,” said Mandin.
He said he was not sure at first, but changed his mind after speaking with family and thinking about it.
“I’d work usually 12-hour days and then go to training afterwards. I just trained and as time went on, I had my skill competition, I won first place and continued on to Team Alberta,” said Mandin.
He said he had two days to complete a project during the Alberta Skills competition where he was competing alongside multiple trades.
“And then at the end of May I went to Vancouver to compete at nationals, where the same thing there was all these different types of trades and each competitor was from their province,” said Mandin.
He said the project he had to work on for the Skills Canada competition was similar to the one he previously worked on during the provincial competition and therefore he was somewhat familiar with it. Now he is training for the WorldSkills competition.
“That competition was supposed to be in Shanghai, China in October, but this past week we found out that it’s been cancelled due to the pandemic and because we weren’t able to travel. But Team Canada said don’t stop training, we will try our absolute best to compete,” said Mandin.
He said his training involves completing a project as fast and as accurately as possible, as the competition only allows for a two millimetre margin of error.
“All my measurements had to be pretty close and so I had to train a lot and I never really used a copper bender, so I had to do lots of practicing with the copper bender because that was where I knew I was the least ready for,” said Mandin.
He said he also practiced different techniques and different ways of achieving goals and getting parts of the project done in a good time frame.
“My instructors provided me with projects that both teams, Alberta and Team Canada, has given as a practice project and I’ve gone through it a few times,” said Mandin.
He said the provincial projects are the same as national projects, but they are allowed to change up to 30 per cent of it to make it different, whether that be changing material, the way things are set up, changing measurements or how to find them.
“The competitions were very similar as in the project they had, I had to run a whole bunch of pipes for a copper heating loop/blackline heating and portable water for shower valves and sink, but there was also on the finished side, shower valves, a baseboard heater and a sink,” said Mandin.
He said everything was pressure tested and they ran water through it as well.
Mandin said that the skills he used to win both competitions were developed through his day-to-day activities at work, where he has been able to master the tools necessary to carry on the projects, but he said Lethbridge College has given him the intellectual skills that he was able to utilize during the competitions.
“When it comes to the knowledge side of things, when it comes to learning how to do the math and learning how to read the prints and learning how to visualize the objective that’s needed to be achieved, that’s where school comes and helps a lot,” said Mandin.

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