Skills competitions are essential to Canadian manufacturing

Why is it so easy to discuss the value of skills when we talk about puck handling and crossovers, but so difficult to talk about their importance when we talk about job skills and life skills?

Skills aren’t just something professional athletes work on after practice. Actually, great athletes make skills training part of their regimen. It’s part of their on-the-job training and there’s a reason they do it. Adding to your skill set gets you paid.

Part of the manufacturing skills pipeline in this country are the provincial and national skills competitions, held in the late spring each year. They are designed to test the skills of manufacturing students and to help create buzz around the trades in general.

Like so many other in-person events, they have been the casualties of COVID-19. This year they were held virtually. But whether virtual or live, these competitions are vital to the future of Canadian manufacturing because they are about more than creating a quality part on a CNC machine, they are about creating excitement.

“Provincial and territorial skills events are a great way to engage youth in interactive experiences that positively profile the skilled trades and technologies. They encourage awareness, opportunities, and exposure to the career options,” said Sue LeFort, vice-president of the Skills Canada national board of directors.

The manufacturing competitions include a variety of machining, welding, and fabricating tasks and are a great way for young people to explore their career options in metal manufacturing.

They are created by a network of volunteers that includes academics from all levels of education, industry, and tradespeople. This group designs and develops real work-situational competitions designed to test the competitors’ knowledge and showcase the technology trends that are influencing the industry.

It’s easy to envision participants in these events as future manufacturing leaders too.

“Competitors who take on the Skills Competition strive to be the best,” said LeFort. “They learn how to adapt to real work situations, often in a stressful environment, which requires critical thinking skills, time management, and often teamwork. These essential skills are a great foundation for our future leaders. Competitors work hard and take great pride in the hopes of representing their school, their province, and possibly their country.”

And while this year’s competitions are different, as much of the world is different, next year the competitions will be live again, with a finale in Vancouver, according to Patrick Rouble, president of the Skills Canada national board of directors.

I look forward to it and advise you, if you can, to get involved.