Wandin Florist’s apprentice Elisabeth Boer was off to Brisbane earlier this month to show off her talents in the 2025 WorldSkills Australia National Championships.
Her efforts were not in vain either, returning back from the competition with a bronze medal.
Ms Boer said it was an awesome experience.
“It was a three-day competition, it had eight items to make over the three days, up against the best in Australia, so it was a pretty cool experience,” she said.
“The whole experience is a really good opportunity to be there and getting the medal was like the extra bonus, it was a great honour and a privilege, so I was a little bit surprised, but really thankful and excited,”
“I was very proud to win the medal, a lot of work went into it, all the prep, planning, lots of practising and I had my mentor Greg Milner from Marjorie Milner College, he was a great help as well.”
605 competitors who are trainees or apprentices from across the country participated in the event, displaying their abilities in over 60 different skills and trades.
Ms Boer said for the competition, some of the things she had to make were a presentation bouquet, a foyer arrangement, a decorative arrangement, a heart-shaped wreath and body flowers.
“My favourite one was the body flowers as it can be way more creative, and it’s just something a bit different than what I’d normally do, it was a good creative outlet, so I really enjoyed that one,” she said.
“I felt pretty good about them all except the last item which was the foyer arrangement, it was the biggest one so that took a lot of mental energy but I got it done,”
“They gave us time limits for each one, each one was different, they ranged from like an hour and a half to two hours for each item and they did give enough (time), it never feels quite enough, but surprisingly I wasn’t very nervous, I felt quite prepared for the competition, I thought I would have been more nervous, but I was calm and just ready to go.”
The gold medal in the floristry category went to Charlotte Follett from Geelong, silver went to Ciara O’Reilly from Sydney and Holly Oates from Northern Rivers received a medallion for excellence.
Owner of the Wandin Florist Amy Collins said they are very proud of Ms Boer and her ability is without a doubt fantastic t have at Wandin Florist.
“Very proud of the effort that she made and everything towards it, it’s a real testament I think to her ability,” she said.
“Most of the flowers are growing in Monbulk arent’ they and Silvan and some in Wandin as well, this is the area that they grow for pretty much the whole of Australia, we’re all about flowers in Wandin,”
“Elisabeth is a good girl and she really enjoys what she does as well, which is very important.”
