NWT’s best in trades and tech head to Skills Canada nationals

Twenty-one competitors from across the Northwest Territories will compete in the Skills Canada National Competition in Halifax over May 28 and 29.

They’ll be joining more than 500 of their skilled peers from across Canada, competing in everything from carpentry to graphic design.

“It’s a really big event where they can see the level of other apprentices and high-schoolers that are out there with the same interests as them,” said Ali Kincaid, the executive director of Skills Canada NWT.

“They can see what people are doing, the level that they’re able to compete and perform, and they can really see what’s possible in their trade.”

More than 40 trades and technologies are represented at the national competition.

While NWT youth will compete in only half of the competition areas, Kincaid said being at the national event exposes them to other trades they’ve perhaps not even considered as careers.

Only three of the 21 Team NT competitors have been to nationals before.

“Often trades and technology are not the careers that are necessarily focused on throughout high school,” said Kincaid. “They’re not the careers that everybody always aspires to – but they’re very meaningful careers, they’re excellent in terms of providing job satisfaction and happiness for people down the road.

“It’s important to celebrate that and to showcase that and hopefully encourage more people to think about the careers as being decided meaningful and desirable.”

Here’s Team NT:

Automobile Technology – Reece Pineo (Yellowknife)

Cabinetmaking – Isabelle Normandin (Yellowknife)

Carpentry – Matteo Bertolini (Yellowknife)

Cooking – Spencer Gerwing (Yellowknife)

Cooking – Devon Burgess (Inuvik)

Electrical Installations – Jayde Lafferty (Yellowknife)

Fashion Technology – Kaylin Harder (Inuvik)

Graphic Design Technology – Dylan Harker (Yellowknife)

Hairstyling – Charlotte (Lottie) Dixon-Wiest (Yellowknife)

Hairstyling ­– Jillian Riles (Yellowknife)

Heavy Equipment Technology – Maxwell Hyde (Hay River)

Job Skill Demonstration – Zakary Mohamud (Yellowknife)

Outdoor Power and Recreation Equipment – Branden Jumbo (Fort Simpson)

Photography – Daniel Manalo (Fort Simpson)

Plumbing – Joshua Baker (Yellowknife)

Public Speaking – Peo Boitumelo (Yellowknife)

Video Production – Braeden Cordero (Yellowknife)

Video Production ­– Markus Cluff (Yellowknife)

Welding – Jaslynn Menton (Yellowknife)

Welding – Riley Coombs (Yellowknife)

Workplace Safety – Ava Wynn Erasmus (Fort Simpson)

Competitors are judged on their skills in completing a project in their trade or technology. Winners will be announced at a closing ceremony on May 30 at Halifax’s Cunard Centre.