Island students take home 8 medals at Skills Canada competition
Sara Fraser | CBC News | Posted: June 6, 2017 9:00 PM | Last Updated: June 6, 2017
Competition is 'Canada's best-kept secret' say organizers
Island students ages 18 to 35 took home medals in cabinetmaking, baking, hair styling and more at a national competition in Winnipeg last week.
Skills Canada is a non-profit organization that promotes trades and technology careers and education to young Canadians.
It's very much like an Olympic event, except rather than competing in sports, these students are competing in trades and technology. — Tawna MacLeod, Skills Canada PEI
"We celebrate academic achievement, we celebrate sporting achievements. These students have skills that are going to see them through the rest of their lives and hopefully see them have incredibly successful careers," said Tawna MacLeod, executive director of Skills Canada Prince Edward Island.
P.E.I. sent a team of 40 competitors to Manitoba — students who'd already won gold for the province in their skills. They left last Tuesday and came home Sunday.
'Incredibly impressive results'
Islanders won two gold medals, one silver and four bronze medals, as well as one for best in region.
"20 of our competitors finished in the top five in their category, which is incredibly impressive results when you think about provinces like Ontario and Alberta and those large provinces that have 15 post-secondary educations and 400 high schools that they're culling their competitors from," MacLeod said.
More than 500 students from across Canada competed in 43 categories, taking home prizes ranging from work gear and tools to cheques for as much as $1,000.
Competitors were also being scouted by companies looking to hire.
"A lot of large companies and organizations, this is where they recruit from," MacLeod explained. "So it's great exposure for these young people. Not only that, they're networking with experts in their field from right across Canada."
'Like an Olympic event'
About 10,000 students came to watch the two-day competition.
"So it's really a great, great opportunity to students to learn more about the potential careers and educations they have available to them when they finish high school," MacLeod said.
Carter Arsenault won gold in cabinetmaking as well as a medal for best in region and Mary Beth Perry won gold in hair styling. Fiona Steele won silver for public speaking. Bronze medals went to Erin Chaisson who took a bronze in IT Office Software Applications, Jack MacPhail for workplace safety, Jacob Hood for cabinetmaking and Bria Amyot for baking.
The students spent the last two months training for nationals.
"It's very much like an Olympic event, except rather than competing in sports, these students are competing in trades and technology areas," MacLeod said.
The teams and competitions are funded through the federal government. It cost between $70,000 and $120,000 for flights, accommodations and meals for Team PEI, MacLeod said.
Never heard of Skills Canada? You're not alone.
"I like to refer to it as Canada's best-kept secret, this Skills Canada national competition," MacLeod said. "Each year, we try and bring a couple of new teachers with us to see it and they all say the same thing — I can't believe something like this exists and I didn't know about it."
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