'Olympics for the kids who love trades and technology': Skills Canada Alberta competition underway at Expo Centre

Students face off at skills competition The annual Provincial Skills Canada Competition is underway at the Expo Centre. CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk reports.

High school and post-secondary school students from across the province are in Edmonton for a provincial competition.

"This is basically the Olympics for the kids who love trades and technology," said Victoria Anderson, Skills Canada Alberta's communications manager.

There are 700 students competing in 45 different trade and technology areas.

"We have everything from welding to baking, from cabinet making to photography and in addition to that we have 11,000 students who are touring the competition," said Anderson.

Skills Canada Alberta, established in 1992, is part of a national organization that promotes careers in skilled trades and technology to youth.

"We’re basically investing in Alberta’s future workforce here on site at the competition," Anderson said.

"We’re so fortunate that we have exceptional partners in government, industry, education, who are all super invested in the same mission that we are, which is to just make sure students are aware of the super rewarding options that are available to them in the trades and tech," she added.

Throughout the two-day event students are also able to network with people in industry.

"They want to show what the options are available but they’re recruiting too. They’re looking for talent, they’re looking for that future workforce," Anderson said.

"I’m really impressed with this whole Skills event," said Troy Wielgus, the lead instrumentation engineer at CNRL's Horizon site.

This was his first time at a Skills event, where he showed off robot dogs used in the oil sands for gas detection.

"What we’re trying to do with these robots is reduce our greenhouse gas footprint essentially. Find leaks when they’re small," he said.

Wielgus said the robot's coding was actually done by students.

"Students are really enthusiastic about this, they’re really good with the coding and it’s a lot of fun for them too," he said.

The winners of this year's provincial competition will get a chance to represent Alberta at the Skills Canada National Competition in Quebec City.

"We have scholarships available, our post-secondary students can travel all the way up to a World’s level," said Anderson.

"We actually have some competitors from Alberta traveling to France in September to represent Canada on the global stage," she added.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk