A trio of Surrey high school students have qualified to represent B.C. in this year’s Skills Canada competition, set for May 30-31 in Quebec City.
The teens – Daniel Cook from Earl Marriott Secondary, and Fraser Heights Secondary’s Kathy Lei and Elaine Shen – made the TeamBC grade by clinching gold medals in their respective categories during last month’s 30th Annual Skills Canada BC event, held April 17 at the Tradex in Abbotsford.
Cook competed in Website Development, while Lei and Shen competed in the 2D Animation category.
They were among 18 Surrey secondary students to pit their skills against those of their B.C. peers, as more than 500 youth vied for hardware in some 54 trades and technology categories.
Of the 18 from Surrey, 12 returned home with medals.
All did “very well in their trade area,” Fraser Heights career development facilitator Martin Lim said in an announcement posted to surreyschools.ca
READ ALSO: VIDEO: B.C. trades students compete in Skills Canada competitions in Abbotsford
Mark Ordinario from Kwantlen Park Secondary won silver in Electronics. Bronze medals were won by Mehtaab Gill (Kwantlen Park, Electronics); Ethan Kong and Nicolas Didier (Fraser Heights, TV Video Production); Sonia Krishan (Fraser Heights, Photography); Nathaniel Butler (Ecole Salish Secondary, Architectural CAD); Annika Rena (Fraser Heights, Graphic Design); and, Bella Stronach and Saidy Flores-Osor (Fraser Heights, 2D Animation).
Surrey gold-medallists are among 60 TeamBC competitors.
At the post-secondary level, Surrey is represented by Kwantlen Polytechnic University students David Craig and Kyle Kant, who won gold in the Landscape category of the provincial event, and KPU’s Jorge Alejandro Lorenzana Lopez and Nguyen Cao An Do, who swept the Mechatronics category.
At the nationals, youth from across Canada will compete in more than 40 trades and technologies categories.
It’s described at skillscanada.bc.ca as “the only national, multi-trade, and technology competition for students and apprentices in the country.”
David Innes, president of Skills Canada BC, said in a news release that the skills competitions serve to “celebrate and reward students for excellence in their mastery of a skilled trade or technology.”
As well, they “create interactive and engaging environments highlighting potential skilled trades and technology careers to the tens of thousands of young people who attend the competitions.”
Skills Canada BC executive director Michelle Skelly noted that with trades and technology careers projected to be in high demand in the near future, such events “provide an engaging environment to both competitors and spectators in order to showcase these exciting career opportunities.”
The next level is the WorldSkills Competition. That event, set for Sept. 10-15, is to take place in Lyon, France.