He’s used to silver metal circuits, but gold has never looked so good for Highland Secondary School student Judd Foster.
Foster, who is in Grade 11, recently returned to the Comox Valley as a gold medal winner in electronics at the Skills Canada national competition held in Moncton. Not only did he return with the medal, but was also selected to represent Canada at the WorldSkills in Abu Dhabi in the fall of 2017.
“I started when I was really young with a lot of science books. I was around six years old when I kind of got interested in the electronics side,” he explained.
Foster competed for 12 hours over the course of two days and tested a variety of different skills related to electronics.
The competition included soldering a circuit, reverse engineering, along with some written theory testing.
“I knew (the competition) was really close. There were a lot of other people who looked like they knew a lot about electronics.”
Skills Canada is a national, not-for-profit organization that actively promotes careers in skilled trades and technologies to Canadian youth.
Skills include everything from construction, transportation and services.
Foster said he is hoping to find a career in either computer science or electronic engineering, with the goal of attending either UBC or the UVic.
Right now, his focus is on the world competition. He’s currently training for the event, which he says “takes it a step up with programming.”
Foster’s qualification in the 44th WorldSkills Competition is the first of its kind for a student in the school district.
Additionally, Grade 12 Isfeld Secondary School student Matt Black won a silver medal in website development at the Skills Canada national competition.
