Skills Canada Competition Aims to Elevate the Trades
MONCTON–The Skills Canada National Competition highlights the best and brightest young tradespeople in Canada. This year, it’s coming to New Brunswick for the first time.
Skills Canada is a not-for-profit organization that promotes careers in skilled trades and technologies to Canadian youth. Every year they hold the competition to both recognize talented young people and spread awareness that the trades are a viable career option to those who might not have considered it otherwise.
New Brunswick will be competing in 35 different competition areas and will have 40 student representatives. Today is the last day of provincial competition in New Brunswick to determine who those 40 representatives will be. The national competition will be held from June 5-8 in Moncton.
Luc Morin is the executive director of Skills Canada New Brunswick. He says there are about 45 skill trades or technologies that will be presented in Moncton, with categories including construction trades, manufacturing trades, service trades and the transportation sector, to name a few.
“[The competition] is trying to reflect real life situations in the industry for work practices as much as possible,” Morin said. “Students will be judged on security, but also precision of the work, correct work procedures, and sometimes theoretical knowledge as well as practical knowledge. In some instances, time is a factor.”
When it comes to competition day, participants are presented with a project that’s catered to each type of skill or trade. In carpentry, for example, the project might be to frame a small structure. For cooking the project might be to prepare a four or five course meal.
“All the projects usually try to represent real industry type projects that you would see,” Morin said. “It’s work practices and correct work procedures to attain the final task.”
Morin says Skills Canada is hoping for not only a learning process through the competition, but also a positive reaction from the community through spectator participation.
“Right now we have over four thousand students from all across the province that have registered to come see this event,” Morin said. “It’s going to be huge. We’re covering 220,000 square feet at the Coliseum and outside.”
The competition will not only be for participants but will also include an interactive event for spectators. Each category will have a Try a Trade area where young spectators can try their hand at laying brick or piping or electrical circuits.
Morin says the greater aim of the competition is to get students aware that trades jobs are sometimes very high paying and much needed in the province.
“We’re hoping to elevate the image of post-secondary trades training to the same level as university training would be,” Morin said. “We want to open some eyes as far as seeing this as a benefit to our future, our youth and to the trades people to say these are things that are needed.”
A selection of national competition winners will go on to participate in the World Skills Competition in Abu Dhabi next year.