Cloverdale hosting Skills Canada competition

Kwantlen’s Cloverdale campus is set to host the regional Skills Canada competition on March 7, where over 200 students will compete from the Richmond, Langley, Surrey and Delta school districts.

The competition allows high school students to explore interests in trades and technology fields in over 15 categories. Some categories that will be featured are carpentry, fashion design and robotics.

Students will be given details of the task in their event when they arrive at he Cloverdale campus March 7. For example, students participating in the fashion design category know ahead of time that they have to make a skirt in six hours, but they get the specific directions on the day, explained Nancy Toth, consultant for career programs for the Richmond school district, who is organizing the event.

“Half of the students don’t usually finish,” she added, illustrating the difficulty of the challenges. “It’s usually very intense.”

Some of the competitors attend Kwantlen, through a program that allows high school students to take classes at Kwantlen and receive credit from Kwantlen and credit from their high school, she said.

As a result of that program, there are many high school students on-campus at Kwantlen, taking part in programs such as automotive, carpentry and welding, she added.

This is the first time Kwantlen has offered to host the event, and Toth thinks it’s a good fit.

“I think it really highlights the profile of Kwantlen. It will bring a lot of families and students to the campus who have never been there before, and it’s a beautiful campus. To highlight these programs, many of which are taught at this campus, is good promotion.”

The day begins at 9 a.m. and competition deadline is at 4 p.m., followed by a medal presentation ceremony at 5 p.m.

Those who win gold medals will qualify to compete at the provincial level in the 15^th Annual BC Skills Competition, which will take place on April 22 at the Tradex, Trade and Exhibition Centre in Abbotsford.