The Skills Canada Prince Edward Island team of 43 students and apprentices are home after competing successfully at the 22nd Skills Canada National Competition (SCNC) in Moncton, N.B. Team PEI brought home four medals.

The National Skills Competition is the only Olympic style competition which serves to highlight areas of trades and technology, and to recognize excellence in these areas.

Five hundred of Canada’s best skilled trade and technology students and apprentices converged at Moncton Coliseum for SCNC 2016. The event included 42 separate competitions in six different sectors: construction, services, manufacturing, transportation, information technology and employability.

Mary Beth Perry, Apprentice, Tignish, won a silver medal in hairstyling; Mary Beth Perry, Tignish, won Best in Region for highest scoring competitor in the region; Kaitlyn Nixon, The Culinary Institute of Canada, won a silver in baking; and Bloyce Walfield, a welding students at Holland College’s Georgetown Centre won a bronze in welding.

“We are incredibly proud of the level of skill and dedication shown by the entire team this year,” said Tawna MacLeod, Executive Director of Skills Canada PEI. “The students were competing against the very best from across Canada, the competition was very stiff, and our students represented P.E.I. well. We are very proud of them.”

The event drew over 6,000 spectators during the two-day competition. The close proximity of the national competition allowed over 200 Island high school students to travel to Moncton to attend the event, and to participate in over 40 Try-A-Trade activities.

“On behalf of the Government of Prince Edward Island, congratulations to our PEI youth who took part in the recent Skills Canada National Competition,” said Minister Richard Brown, Workforce and Advanced Learning. “I was honoured to witness the incredible talent demonstrated at the competition in Moncton, and our PEI competitors should be proud of themselves. They represented PEI very well and I wish them all the best with their future career plans in the trades and technology sectors.”

Each year Skills Canada PEI organizes provincial competitions in 35 areas of trades and technology competitions. These competitions are used to select members of the National team. The 2017 National Skills Competition will be held in May 2017 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

About Skills Canada Prince Edward Island SCPEI was founded in 1997 as part of a pan-Canadian not-for-profit organization that works with employers, educators, labour groups and governments to promote skilled trades and technology careers among Island youth. For information on Skills Canada PEI programs and competitions visit www.skillscanada.pe.ca.