DDSB students take home 20 medals in Skills Ontario competition

Posted On Thursday August 04, 2022
Skills Ontario 1
Connor, Welding

Canada’s largest skilled trades and technologies competition, Skills Ontario, took place in a remote, virtual format from April 19th to 29th, and boasted more than 2,300 competitors from Grade 4 to apprenticeship-level, showcasing their skills in contests such as: robotics, IT, horticulture and landscape, coding, culinary arts, graphic design, and home and team building. Some competition processes lasted a full eight hours.  The competitions give exposure to the possibilities of different career paths that are available to students that they might not have been aware of. It also allows for them to take pride in skill sets that they have. Competing in the skill set competitions provides students with the opportunity to win medals, scholarships, bursaries, job offers and prizes.

The DDSB was proud to have 64 students competing from both the elementary and secondary levels across 28 competition categories and receiving medals in 20, including seven gold, nine silver, and four bronze place finishes.

Our gold medal winners won in the job skill demonstration, restaurant service and IT software applications categories. Our silver medalists won in electronics, 2D character animation and workplace safety categories, and our bronze medalists won in the graphic design studio production category.

We would like to acknowledge DDSB staff educator, Geetha Nair, for his hard work, passion, and commitment to the students after he mentored two of our competitors that medalled both silver and gold.

Student Success Program Facilitator Jennifer Parrington notes how the teacher-to-student mentorship is the most important part of the Skills Ontario experience. “They really bond with that teacher/mentor, and the teacher/mentor gets that next level of fulfillment in their teaching career,” explains Parrington.

“When you take the time to hone a student’s skills, look at what they do. They flourish.”