apprenticeship<\/a>, become a tradesman, \u201cdo the work\u201d, and go home at the end of each day.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was just going to be the thing I did, hopefully enjoy, and it\u2019d pay my bills,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never would have thought when I started my apprenticeship that I\u2019d get the opportunity to travel around the world representing New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Brown works on commercial refrigeration and air conditioning systems across installation, maintenance and fault-finding work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learned so many skills: electrical, plumbing, welding, mechanical work; it\u2019s never the same job each day, it\u2019s always something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
His interest in practical problem-solving started young, spending time with his father pulling apart and rebuilding fishing reels before later learning basic vehicle maintenance.<\/p>\n
![\"Brown]()
Brown moved into an apprenticeship through Competenz after completing work experience with McAlpine Hussmann\u2019s Tauranga branch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found it rewarding just doing simple things like oil changes on my car and stuff. I did enjoy getting my hands dirty from time to time for sure,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt work, I quite enjoy the electrical fault finding. It\u2019s like a puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 1500 competitors from about 70 countries will compete across 60 skill categories at WorldSkills Shanghai in September.<\/p>\n
Brown will tackle practical challenges testing his skills in refrigeration installation, commissioning, servicing and fault-finding.<\/p>\n
He said he was \u201cstoked\u201d to be competing and encouraged others considering a career in the trades to \u201cgo with your gut\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it all flowed so easily. It felt right and I never looked back,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had to choose again, I would always choose what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
WorldSkills New Zealand general manager Carl Rankin said the competition tested far more than technical ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompetitors develop resilience, professionalism and the ability to perform under pressure, and Campbell demonstrates all of those qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rankin said Brown\u2019s success was no accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got a young person with a great attitude and a willingness to learn, a training provider that\u2019s giving them every opportunity, and an employer that\u2019s committed to supporting them through on-job training and everything else they need,\u201d Rankin said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen those three things come together, you get a great outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brown said he felt \u201cpretty honoured\u201d about the selection. \u201cIt still amazes me sometimes when I think about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24741,1975,117,111,43,139,69,23282,13117,3747,61,272695,80],"class_list":["post-555233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-apprentice","tag-at","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ppmoa","tag-represent","tag-shanghai","tag-to","tag-worldskills","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}