Lucile’s Waikato’s top apprentice builder
Lucile Richardson has made history as the first woman to be crowned the best building apprentice in Waikato.
Richardson, 21, beat out 11 others to win Waikato’s New Zealand Certified Builders Apprentice Challenge in April.
She is only the third woman in the competition’s 10-year history to make it through to the national final, which is being held in June in Wellington.
Richardson said she entered the competition two years ago as a first-year apprentice and didn’t do that well, so she entered again this year wanting to improve. Now in the third year of her apprenticeship, she said the challenge gave them eight hours to build a picnic table.
Contestants had to follow specific design plans and meet minimum safety standards before the tables were assessed by a panel of expert judges.
Richardson said it took her the full eight hours to complete the challenge, while most of the others only took five to six hours, so she was questioning herself during the competition.
However, at the end, the judges said the other contestants’ accuracy wasn’t as good, showing that the extra time had paid off.
Richardson said they were given the plans a week before the challenge so she did a lot of preparation.
Being a woman pushed her to work harder, she said, as she felt like people already had an opinion of her before she even turned up.
‘‘You do have to prove yourself to show people you can actually do it, so it’s a bit of a motivation.’’
Richardson said that when she left high school she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, but she knew she wanted it to be an active job.
‘‘I didn’t want to go to university and study, I really like the outdoors and being active.
‘‘My partner is a builder as well, so he gave me the push to do it.’’
As well as winning the regional champion title, Richardson also won an ITM prize pack of trade tools.
At the national finals she will compete against 18 other regional winners from across New Zealand for the Ken Read Memorial Trophy and $50,000 worth of prizes.
Richardson said she was looking forward to the experience and seeing the skills other contestants had to offer.