Skills competition returns to test area high school students

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on March 21, 2023.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Culinary competitor Sarah Yagos of Lundbreck's Livingstone Range School was busy cooking her hamburger meal during the South West Regional Skills Canada Competition Saturday at Lethbridge College.

For the first time after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the South West Regional Skills Canada Competition for high school students returned to Lethbridge College on Saturday.

This year also saw former competitors of the competition come to judge in their respective fields.

Cole Vavrapeacock participated in the competition over seven years ago in the welding and now in his first year of judging.

He competed in the regional competition twice and the provincial event in Edmonton three times for provincials.

He won gold both times in the South West regional event and got a third place at one of the provincials.

“I just came back because Dave (LC welding instructor Heins) actually asked me and he asked me before,” said Vavrapeacock.

“And now I finally got a chance to do it, and no it feels awesome to be back. That’s all I can really say.”

He noticed when he came to judge that he knew what the participants were feeling.

“They look a little nervous and it feels awesome to be on this side of things,” he said.

“I kind of tell them like, you (have) got to challenge yourself and it’ll all be OK in the end. But, yeah, right now they’re nervous, but it’s just awesome to see all the interest in welding, and looking at their welds already, there’s some skilled guys out there.”

Vavrapeacock admits looking back, he thought it was nerve-wracking to start, but then thereafter it was about practicing a lot.

“Yeah, no, Dave helped me out a lot,” he said.

“He was able to come in on Saturday’s with me, like one-on-one, to train me for the provincials and yeah it’s just a great experience.”

He was signed up as a welding apprentice prior to participating in Skills.

“So, I was already really interested,” he said.

“But then to come in and see all the newer technology, because the College has top of the line stuff pretty much, that really made me want to get in to see all the neat things you could do with better technology. So that was a big eye opener for me too was the technology.

Another judge, Spencer Nelson, competed in the graphic design competition part of the event in 2017 and 2018.

He then landed a job at Lethbridge College in the same field, and on Saturday was judging the graphic designs from the students.

“I remember when I was competing, it felt so awkward to get critiqued because I had no previous experience with that,” said Nelson.

“But the value that gave me was immense because I able to arrive in my college classes ready to receive feedback and apply it.”

Nelson had some idea on how client and designer relationships worked but felt the competition gave him a leg up to experience it.

“Aside from just taking classes and doing it for fun over the years, it again like showed me what the actual system was like,” he said.

“So it wasn’t like uncharted territory when I started to actually to move into that direction for work.”

He won the regional event his category in both years and made it to provincials in 2018.

“But, yeah, I had no idea what I was going to do for work,” said Nelson.

“And then experiencing that was like OK this might actually be a career direction, and one of the judges that I’m actually judging with today told me to take the program at the college, which ended up with me being hired by the college and actually having a career in the field.”

Since 2002, Career Transitions in partnership with Lethbridge College has promoted career pathways for southwestern Alberta high school students that are related to skilled trades and technologies.

This year’s competition areas included Automotive Service Technology, baking, cabinet making, carpentry, culinary arts, fashion technology, graphic design, photography, video production and welding.

Winners from the regional event go to the provincial competition in Edmonton on May 3-4 and berths are up for grabs there for the national competition in Winnipeg on May 25-26.