Triple play of provincial awards for Lakeland apprentices

Lakeland carried on its winning tradition in a big way at this year's awards banquet of the Alberta Apprenticeship & Industry Training Branch held in Edmonton on Friday, April 13.

Three Lakeland students claimed awards for this year’s top apprentices in the province. Luke Thompson was named the top agricultural equipment technician, Jonathan Crick was named the top carpentry apprentice, and Marc Bennett earned the honour of the top parts technician.

Each trades award is presented to the student who achieves the highest overall mark in their final period of training and receives a strong recommendation from their employer.

All three Lakeland award winners are students at the Vermilion campus.

Joining the students at the banquet where they received their awards were Lakeland trades instructors Chris Thompson, Marcel Lefebvre, Don Henry, Randy Hobbis and Neil Napora.

“These students are excellent representatives of Lakeland College. They show safe work habits and are a pleasure to instruct,” says Thompson.

Crick also won the Alberta Construction Top Carpenter award and the Top Construction Award. He works for Dwelling Places Inc. based in Bonnyville. Luke Thompson currently works for Hi-way Service in Vermilion and Marc Bennett works for First Truck Centre at Lloydminster.

This is the fifth consecutive year that a student who took their apprenticeship technical training at Lakeland received a major award from the provincial apprenticeship training branch. Ivan Cusack, an electrical instructor at Lakeland, was also nominated for a Top Instructor Award. 

In photo: Lakeland instructor Neil Napora, apprentices Jonathan Crick and Marc Bennett, instructor Randy Hobbis, apprentice Luke Thompson, and instructor Chris Thompson at the 2012 Alberta Apprenticeship & Industry Training Branch awards ceremony held April 13 at Edmonton.