For Royce Richards, reaching the WorldSkills competition final meant a commitment to extra training, increasing his knowledge base, and developing his skill set. New Zealand Printer spoke to him on his return from Canada
LAST month, Christchurch printer, Royce Richards proved his mettle at the WorldSkills competition in Calgary, Canada winning a medal of excellence for his effort as a sheetfed printer, one of only six in the New Zealand team to gain a medal. Richards continues a tradition of success in the international competition, following Kieran Dale who won bronze two years ago.
The competition took place over four days in Calgary, Canada. The team travelled together, arriving two days before the competition to a warm welcome, receiving gift bags, information packs and, most important, cowboy hats, which team members wore proudly. They spent their first day in orientation mode visiting the nearby tourist city of Banff. Richards says, “It seemed funny, having a day off to start with. We used the time to get acclimatised and could relax and get used to the change in time zones. I found the flights and time zone changes no problem, probably because I’m used to working shifts.”
The team was able to spend the next day on the competition site, getting a run through of the timetable, and able to ask questions. Richards says, “I was able to learn more about the gear that we don’t have here like the computer simulator.”
This piece of equipment would later prove problematic. Richards says, “Overseas they use a computer simulator to train on, where they don’t have a press.” While the simulator imitated most of the printing presses controls, it wasn’t a perfect copy. Richards found it took much longer to make adjustments on the computer simulator than it would on a real press. Unfortunately, the simulator provided a large portion of the marks allotted to the tasks.
The opening ceremony left a lasting memory for the New Zealand team and the crowds at Calgary. Richards says, “The prime minister opened the competition. The teams walked across the stage in turn. When it was our turn we stopped on the stage and did the haka. The crowd cheered and I think we became a crowd favourite because we were the only team to stop on stage and do that.”
The competition itself involved Richards working through various tasks. One day he was working with digital, ink mixing, guillotining, working on a simulator and the next day he completed a full colour process job on a Heidelberg SM 52 four colour press. Richards shone in this section and looked very good in the competition, but he lost points later on the computer simulator, which cost him dearly as there were bonuses attached to the simulator tasks. The next day he worked with a spectrometer measuring densities and scored well there.
At the closing ceremony, the New Zealand team was asked to perform the haka again. Richards says, “We were the only team to perform a cultural item and we were extremely proud to be asked to do it at the closing ceremony.”
Richards is philosophical about the computer simulator that probably cost him a chance of winning his section. He says, “It’s what they use in school over there. It’s a computer with a picture of a press on it, and it’s very realistic. It gives you problems so you have to make decisions. For example, it will stop a press and you have to restart it, pumps can fail, you can run out of ink. The duct settings were difficult with only one key to change things. It was not like a console on a press so it was very time consuming.”
Richards appreciates that he never made the journey to Calgary on his own. He expressed his gratitude to BJ Ball Papers for its support in getting him to and from the competition. His employers, Rainbow Print Group, kept him on full pay while he was away and for the time that he was training at the Heidelberg academy in Auckland. Grant Letfus, Trust4Skills and PrintNZ Training helped solve many technical and logistical problems, and Kieran Dale chipped in with advice and support.
One aspect of the competition that will remain with Richards is the fellowship he enjoyed with young printers from 14 other countries. He says, “We talked a lot and I took quite a few photos of how they worked. Most of them spoke English even as a second language. I added most of them to Facebook so I hope to keep up with them.”
His brief time away has also increased his desire to learn. He says, “It has definitely given me new ideas about skills and up skilling. I now want to increase my knowledge even further.”
