Watson's 14th Annual
Electrical Apprenticeship Contest

Watson Electrical recently held its 14th Annual Electrical Apprenticeship contest at the Wilson County American Legion Fairgrounds, Wilson, NC.   Since the beginning of the program, apprenticeship training has proven to be an excellent tool in the development of outstanding, highly-qualified electricians and company leaders. 

While the annual contest is a time-consuming, involved event, the purpose is multi-fold. One aspect is the inter-company competition. It’s a great time to get selected apprentices together and let them compete against each other. There’s nothing like getting the competitive juices flowing! Second, since apprenticeship is training by definition, we also take the opportunity to talk about the contest itself and how the apprentices can take something from the contest and apply it to their day to day work on the construction site. A good example is material handling and how much more productivity can be gained because all of the material needed for the job is right there and ready to be installed. Third, the NC Department of Labor conducts apprentice contests each year at the NC State Fair. Apprentices from all over the sate compete for the “best in the state”. Our apprentice contest determines one single representative and additional alternates for the state contest.

It is an enjoyable time and year after year we see the return on investment from our commitment to the apprentice program. It is one of many training programs provided by Watson Electrical that creates a foundation for career growth. Apprentices who graduate have the opportunity to continue their training and potentially advance to supervision and management. 

The Watson event is a well-developed, historically proven, organized training mechanism that has evoked teamwork at all levels from Operations to Human Resources, Training, and Safety, with this year’s contest being the most successful to date.

Watson Electrical also hosted several distinguished visitors from North and South Carolina—Dr. Barbara Tansey, Fayetteville Tech Community College VP Academic Affairs and Student Services;   John Autrey, Trident Technical College Director of Apprenticeship (N. Charleston, SC); Butch Clift, Carolinas Associated General Contractors (N. Charleston, SC).  Not only was the contest successful in organization and efficiency, the judges repeatedly commented about the high degree of workmanship and close competition amongst all 20 apprentices.

The apprentices who competed were Robert Elwood (Fayetteville Division), Chris Januzys, David Walker & Jerry Wyrick (Burlington Division), Luther Barbour III, David Bass Jr, James Hiester, Percy Manuel & Adam Welvang (Special Division), Jin Wook Yoo (Raleigh Division) Eric Currey & Glenn Hadley (Wilmington Division), Thomas Griffin Jr, Jeremy Lemke & Nathaniel Eubanks (Virginia Beach), Tim Herms, William McGuire, Jeffrey Jones, Antonio Martinez & Matthew McCroskey (Charlotte Division).

Winners of Watson’s 2008 Contest are 1st Place—Chris Januzys, Burlington Div, 2nd Place—Percy L. Manuel, Special Div, 3rd Place—Tim Herms, Charlotte Div.

Congratulations to all participants, trainers, support staff, managers, vendors and facility providers who made the 14th Annual Contest the company’s best training event to date!!