Six students from NBCHS won medals in the 14th Annual Skills Canada Provincial Competition that took place March 15-16 in Regina.
Micah Fedorchuk earned gold for welding. His welding teacher is Mr. Nickel. Tessa Petersen and Courtney Horsman won silver and bronze for workplace safety and James Mielke received bronze for architectural drafting. All were taught by Mr. Waddell. Sam Burns and Sean Newton, working as a team, received gold for TV and video production. They are taught by Mr. Wall.
Skills Canada Saskatchewan is a competition "to promote skilled trades and technologies as a first choice career option for youth in Saskatchewan," according to a press release. Students compete in categories from aesthetics to floristry to job interviews to robotics, a total of 29 categories in all. Skills Canada in particular notes that employers in the next two decades will have trouble hiring and retaining skilled workers, and their mandate is to "help Canada's industries find well-trained, well-prepared young people" to work in the trades.
James Halushka, who has been the Skills Canada co-ordinator since the last school year, stresses success rates vary greatly from year to year. NBCHS, however, has typically done well, taking home medals at the provincial level. Halushka is cautiously optimistic for the team's prospects at the national level, but stresses = Saskatchewan as a whole can perform internationally. Saskatchewan teams representing Canada at the World Skills Competition have finished fourth, once in 2009 in hairdressing, and once in 2011 for IT software solutions for business. The teams were not from NBCHS, but it does raise the hopes for this tiny province, especially when pitted against such huge countries as Japan.
Though the students had to choose themselves if they wanted to go to the Skills Canada Saskatchewan competition, all spoke of the event as a great opportunity and great fun. For the gold medal winners, it may be the first of several such skills competitions, as they will go on to compete against the gold medal winners of all other provinces at Skills Canada. The gold medal winners there will go on to compete at the World Skills Competition, which takes place every two years.
Even if the gold medal-winners do not win at Skills Canada, all the medal winners, with the exception of Tessa and Courtney, are in Grade 11, meaning they have another opportunity to participate in tournaments.
For the welding competition, Micah competed against 20 other students to weld a design. The top five welders were given a fastidious judging, after which Micah was declared the winner by a small margin. Despite only having started welding the previous school year, Micah prevailed, a fact attributable, at least in part, to a rigorous practice schedule. Micah boasted of having welded every day since he learned how.
In the TV and Video Production category, the team of Sam Burns and Sean Newton had to produce a 90 second short on a popular topic for our provincial government - Saskatchewan's "boom." Seeing that the other groups were attempting mostly documentary-style pieces, Sam and Sean decided to film a Rick Mercer-style rant. The contrarian decision earned them the respect of the judges, and they hope to attempt to go against the grain again at the national level.
All thanked the Living Sky School Division for providing them with the facilities they needed to practise and learn, and their instructors for their help. Skills Canada competitions will take place from May 13 to 16 in Edmonton.
