Elgin pair wins nation competition for electricians

ELGIN - Will Barnett and Christopher Brieschke, both of Elgin, were named this year's winners in the Pro-Am team category at the 2021 IDEAL National Championship.

IDEAL Electrical, based in Sycamore, concluded its fifth annual IDEAL National Championship in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this month, marking the event's return to in-person competition. Barnett and Christopher Brieschke, of team Risky Business, earned $40,000 for their win.

Out of more than 32,000 electricians who competed in qualifying rounds across the U.S. and 142 final competitors, winners were selected in three categories.

Throughout the week of the national championship, competitors demonstrated their skills in four rounds of intense challenges, including a commercial pull box prep and install, a commercial panel install, a three-way switch install and an entire panel change-out. Family and friends of participants filled an arena to watch the adrenaline-pumping events and cheer on the competitors.

"We are in the wake of an increasing skilled labor shortage across the U.S. but it is more imperative than ever that we attract more men and women to the electrical industry to meet the swiftly increased rise in demand," Carmen Cardillo, general manager, IDEAL Electrical U.S. and Mexico.

The skilled trades are feeling the impact of this labor shortage with 68 percent of companies having struggled to hire skilled workers, according to the Angi 2021 Skilled Trades Report, with half of them (33 percent) stating that they could not find employees to fill open positions.