Future carpenters, welders, and electricians, strut their stuff at a Skills Ontario competition in Listowel, vying for a shot at being the best in Ontario. “They love what they do. They are talented. And it gives them a platform and an opportunity to be able to show that on a day like today, where they start with a project and finish at the end of the day and get some feedback from our judges and potentially advance to the next round for Skills Ontario, whether that’s qualifying or the provincial competition in Toronto,” says Jodi Froud, Pathways co-ordinator, and Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program recruiter, for the Avon Maitland District School Board. Making it to the provincial big competition would be a dream for competitors, like Grade 12 student Dylan McNeil, but it’s really the sense of accomplishment that comes with building something with his mind and hands, that’s appealing to McNeil. “You can have 200 bucks worth of lumber, and then you turn it into a table that somebody might pay, 300 or 400 bucks for. And you come here at eight in the morning and it’s just a pile of wood, and you leave with a table and bench, and it’s cool to see the progression in that short time,” says the Grade 12 cabinetry apprentice. About 700,000 of Canada’s 4-million skilled trades people will retire in the next two years. About 100,000 of those will be required in Ontario alone, just in the construction industry. For years, skilled trades simply wasn’t “cool” at school, but that’s slowly changing. “I think about three years ago we started this competition, and we had maybe four people, six people competing. Today, I think we’re around 12 to 13. And I’m just hearing students in the halls. How do we get to be a part of this next year? Like, this is exactly what we’re hoping for, right? So it’s going to keep growing,” says guidance/tech teacher at Listowel District Secondary School, Tyler Campbell. “This does give them connections and network with people where potentially, when they leave high school or even summer job or through an O.Y.A.P apprenticeship, that’s an opportunity where they’ve met someone, they’ve made a connection, they’ve shown how skilled they are in an area, and then potentially that could lead to something further down the line,” says Froud. Treating the skilled trades like a “sport” or “competition” does help entice some highschoolers to take the leap, as well, says Froud, who is already planning for next year’s Huron-Perth Skills Ontario competition. “You can do in school, but it’s not like normal school work. And you have a lot of uses for it out there in the world,” says one of the competitors, McNeil.
