Madina Nur on her IDEAL National Championship Experience
January 22, 2025
By Blake Marchand
The 2024 IDEAL National Championship was held in West Palm Beach, Florida this past September. This year’s event consisted of 10 apprentices, nine from across the U.S, and one Canadian, Madina Nur from the IBEW 2085 in Winnipeg, MB. IDEAL held ten qualifying events across Canada, with over 500 apprentices participating.
Down in West Palm Beach, the finalists took on the challenge of installing an electrical sub-panel, wiring an AC/heat pump condenser and installing and wiring an air handler with heat coil.
“Honestly, the whole experience was awesome,” Madina said.
“I learned a lot. The actual competition itself was a lot of things I’d never done before and I’d never seen anyone do before. That was a little bit nerve wracking. Trying to kind of figure it out on the fly and looking at the clock ticking down… It was definitely a learning experience.”
The IDEAL National competition is a unique environment under bright lights, with cameras, and a 90-minute time limit.
“It was a good way to kind of see where I’m at in my apprenticeship and what I’d still like to work on. I learned a lot about a few things in the competition electrical wise, like air handlers and condensers and installing a sub panel,” she said, “all sorts of stuff.”
“I feel I could have done better, but I’m pretty happy with how I did. I was super anxious, and I felt like I couldn’t really think straight, and I hadn’t done piping and stuff in a while.”
Being an apprentice in a competition like this provides an added challenge because you don’t necessarily have the muscle memory of completing the required work time and time again. There is a lot you may not have had experience with or have had enough reps with to be able to complete it confidently under pressure.
“I was trying so hard, it felt like trying to get a rusty gear moving,” she joked. Ultimately, however, the experience was great overall.
Madina said her favourite part of the experience was the people she met down there.
“I met a lot of other cool apprentices, and I got to hear about their experiences,” she said, “because all the apprentices and electrical work other than me were from the states, it’s kind of cool to see the differences.”
As part of her apprenticeship, Madina has worked on some new builds, as well as in a commercial setting. Her first job was at a hydro power station, “we were building offices so that they could monitor what’s going on with the hydro dams in the northern parts of the province,” she explained.
In Manitoba around 96% of their electricity is generated with hydro, “so that’s a huge part of our whole electrical system,” Madina noted.
“I like where I’m at, I love the company that I work with and the people that I work with, they’re really, really awesome people. They’re very kind to me and they’ve never gotten frustrated when I ask a lot of questions. They’ll always answer my questions and help me out when I ask.”
Currently, she is working on maintenance-based job, where she has the ability to problem solve and figure things out under the journeyman she is working with.
“So that’s probably my favorite part – actually thinking about – let’s say we’re installing pipe, like how you would put the run together? Where you’d want it on the wall and just kind of piecing together how you would install it.”
Madina said she appreciates her journeymen allowing her to problem solve on the job, “instead of someone telling you exactly what they want, they kind of make you work for it.” Which is a big part of the learning process when it comes to developing strong trades people. “That’s my favorite part,” she reiterated of her work as an apprentice.
Finally, I asked Madina about what areas of the industry she would like to explore once she has completed her apprenticeship. “I’m not entirely sure,” she answered honestly.
“I’ve been so focused on trying to finish my apprenticeship I haven’t really put a lot of thought to where I wanted to go afterwards, but I was hoping to stay in the commercial and industrial sector. Maybe get into motor controls. I’ve always found motor control super fascinating, just the fine-tuned stuff that you really need to think about ’cause I always like a puzzle.”
The IDEAL National Championship, established in 2016, is designed to celebrate, and honour the Electrical trade. The competition highlights the electrical trade as a rewarding, mentally stimulating and in-demand career path that provides necessary skills to keep local communities thriving and continues to be a top priority as we transition forward to support infrastructure improvements.
IDEAL Electrical looks forward to another year of Apprentice competition events across Canada in 2025. More information to follow soon.
