From October 6 to 7, Saldus Technical College future specialists of the road construction industry competed in the mastery competition of young professionals “Road Construction”. The title of the best young professionals and the first place was won by the students of Smiltene Technical School.
Igors Bukšs, Ralfs Celmiņš and Jānis Ričards Mauslis from Smiltene Technical School won the first place in the competition “Road Construction”, receiving 66 points out of the maximum 100 points. Saldus technical school students Mārcis Neicinieks, Nils Reinis Grīnblats and Ivo Grintāls received 64 points in the overall evaluation and took the second place, but the third place winners future specialists Vadims Petrovs, Maksims Maksimovs, Arturs Andrijevskis of the Daugavpils Construction Technical School scored 59.67 points. Nine competitors from Smiltene Technical School, Saldus Technical School and Daugavpils Construction Technical School participated in the competition and performed tasks in teams of three.
The competition was organized by the State Education Development Agency (VIAA), but the theoretical and practical tasks for the competition were developed by the road construction company SIA Binders. The performance of the teams of competitors was evaluated by the road construction company SIA Binders project managers Romāns Gabrusenoks and Armands Sams, as well as SC group project manager Edgars Brūveris.
"Competitors are aware of what they do not know, where their knowledge or skills should be improved. Young people also acquire new knowledge, as well as teachers see what more attention should be paid to in the curriculum, ”says Edgars Brūveris, project manager of the SC group.
For two days, the contestants demonstrated their skills in laying pavements on the basis of pre-levelled crushed stone, determined the particle size distribution of soil samples in the laboratory test and the consistency of bitumen by the needle penetration method, as well as calculated the Los Angeles coefficient. Industry experts evaluated the measurements made by young people with an optical level, practical and theoretical knowledge of the use of equipment and hand tools used in road construction, as well as knowledge of labour protection.
"The results of the geodesy task were quite bad for all teams and were similar last year. Vocational education institutions should work on geodesy training, but the teams showed good results in the paving area and other tasks, ”says Romāns Gabrusenoks, project manager of SIA Binders.
Photo gallery with the competition is available in VIAA Flickr account.
National competitions are funded by the European Social Fund project “Career Support in General and Vocational Education Institutions” and the State of Latvia. The project is implemented by VIAA until 31 May 2022.