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Message from the CEO
Skills/Compétences Canada (SCC) is continuing preparations for its flagship event, the
Skills Canada National Competition
, which will be held in the city of Moncton, in New Brunswick, from June 5-8, 2016. Over 500 youth from across Canada will compete in over 40 skilled trade and technology contests for the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of excellence and be named national champion in their chosen field. We hope to see everyone there! This is also a qualifying year for the
44th WorldSkills Competition
, which will take place from October 14-19, 2017, in Abu Dhabi, in United Arab Emirates.
SCC and Skills USA will be co-hosting the WorldSkills General Assembly from October 1-7, 2016, in Niagara Falls, Ontario. This is the first time this event is being hosted by two countries and it is expected that approximately 300 international delegates will attend. This represents a great opportunity for Canadian stakeholders to connect with the international community. In addition to the General Assembly meetings a one day Leaders Forum/Conference Programme will be available for registration soon. Check out www.worldskills2016.com for more information.
As 2016 begins, we look forward to continue working with our Member Organizations across Canada, our partners, businesses, like-minded organizations and educational institutions to promote careers in
skilled trades and technologies to youth in Canada.
Shaun Thorson
Chief Executive Officer
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Skills/Compétences Canada In the News
Here are some recent news clips featuring Skills/Compétences Canada and it's Member Organizations:
-SCC's Director of Marketing, Mike Pitre, recently did an interview with Radio-Canada and spoke about the importance of the Skills Canada National Competition in promoting careers in skilled trades and technologies to youth in Canada.
-Check out this interesting story on an SCC alumni who talks about her experience at the 21st Skills Canada National Competition:
New Brunswick student captures silver at Skills Canada for workplace safety
, in WorkSafe.
-Read this interesting article:
Sweet success for Okanagan College culinary student featured in BC Local News
.
-Read this article highlighting the carpentry skills competition held by Compétences Québec, in Le Reflet:
Un résident de Saint-Mathieu remporte le marteau d'or
(in French only).
-Check out this article featuring Skills Canada Manitoba:
North End schools to get lesson in skilled trades,
featured in CBC News Manitoba.
-View this article about a previous Skills Canada NTC Member, in cooking, featured in the Advertiser:
Andrews headed to national Gold Medal Plates
.
-Lina Shamoun, an SCC alumni and judge in hairstyling for SCNC, recently won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the 2016 Business Excellence Awards.
Click here
to read this article published in the Morning Post Exchange.
-Read this article featuring the Skills Canada Ontario cardboard boat races:
Cardboard boat racing champs
, published in the Peterborough Examiner.
-Read this article published by WorldSkills which features an SCC alumni and bronze medal winner in beauty therapy at WorldSkills London 2011:
WorldSkills Champions Trust welcomes six new representatives
.
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Skills/Compétences Canada Promotes Trades at Cannexus Conference
Skills/Compétences Canada (SCC) hosted a booth at the 10th Cannexus Conference, which was held from January 25-27, 2016, at the Shaw Centre, in Ottawa. SCC staff had the opportunity to speak to career counsellors and educators about careers in skilled trades and the importance of the nine essential skills, as well as promote the upcoming 22nd Skills Canada National Competition which will be held in Moncton, NB, in June 2016. SCC also had the Essential Skills Mobile App. available for participants to try.
Several of SCC's partners participated at this event and hosted interactive Try-A-Trade
®
and Technology activities in the Skilled Trade and Technology Activity Zone. UA Canada demonstrated a piping system using piping material that a plumber, steamfitter and welder use to complete everyday jobs. CWA Foundation held a virtual welding activity that simulated sparks and sounds in a real time welding environment. In addition, Almontelaser.com held a robotics demonstration to show the emerging technologies in the design and manufacturing of products. This robotics demonstration was organized by Adrian Schut, an SCC alumni in mobile robotics. Adrian who won a medallion of excellence at WorldSkills London 2011 is now the owner of Almontelaser.com. SCC would like to thank all of it's participating partners.
The Cannexus conference celebrated 10 years of exploring innovative approaches in career development while welcoming a record 900+ delegates to Ottawa.
*The photos included in this article are courtesy of Fred Cattroll, photographer, (www.cattroll.com).
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Tourism HR Canada and Skills/Compétences Canada Announce Partnership
Skills/Compétences Canada (SCC) is pleased to announce a partnership agreement with
Tourism HR Canada. The two organizations have worked together successfully in the past, and this agreement formalizes this working relationship and recognizes the common goal of developing a skilled workforce that exists within both organizations' mandates.
SCC is a national not-for-profit organization that actively promotes careers in skilled trades to Canadian youth, including several trades within the tourism industry. Tourism HR Canada is a national organization working to improve the quality of the Canadian tourism workforce by identifying and addressing HR issues, including promoting employment in tourism trades as a path to a rewarding and challenging career.
The tourism industry in Canada employs over 500,000 youth, making it one of the largest employers of young people in the country. For many young people, employment in the tourism sector represents their initial entry into the workforce; however, the number of young people who pursue careers in this sector must be increased to sustain our tourism workforce. To accomplish this goal, the image of careers in skilled tourism trades must be improved.
SCC and Tourism HR Canada are in a unique position to work together to promote tourism careers by highlighting each other's existing efforts in this area. By promoting and attending the annual Skills Canada National Competition, and providing additional recognition to the participants, Tourism HR Canada can demonstrate that tourism trades deserve to be regarded as viable career choices along with skilled trades in other sectors. At the same time, by promoting Tourism HR Canada's industry recognized, competency-based training and certification programs to participating youth and member organizations, SCC can encourage skills development and illustrate career paths on tourism to participating youth, employers and educators.
In addition, the two organizations will strengthen their engagement with and promotion of each other's work through newsletters, website links and social media, with each organization reaching new audiences through the other's existing network of champions and followers.
Through these efforts, Tourism HR Canada and
Skills/Compétences Canada
will work towards their common goal of promoting career opportunities for youth, which will benefit both organizations, young people starting out in their careers, and the Canadian tourism industry as a whole.
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ESSENTIAL SKILLS EDUCATORS FORUM
This event is being hosted at the 2016 Skills Canada National Competition.
WHEN IS IT HAPPENING?
Monday, June 6, 2016, at the Moncton Coliseum, Moncton, NB, 9:30am - 3:30pm.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
TEACHERS
/
GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS
/
CAREER COUNSELLORS
/
HR MANAGERS
/
ADMINISTRATORS
/
PARENTS
WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?
Meet other colleagues in your field
/
Share your experiences and learn from others
/
Be inspired to bring back information and make changes
/
Meet skilled trades and technology experts
/
Access new essential skills educational resources
Cost: Free Admission.
For more information contact Marisa Sosa at [email protected].
To register contact Nadine Gallant at [email protected].
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Join us for the 2016 Skills Canada National Competition!
The 22nd Skills Canada National Competition (SCNC) will take place from June 5-8, 2016, at Moncton Coliseum, in Moncton, New Brunswick. SCNC is the only national, multi-trade and technology competition for students and apprentices in the country where over 500 youth from all over the country will compete in over 40 skilled trade and technology contests for a chance to be a national champion.
Through these competitions, Skills/Compétences Canada also seeks to raise awareness about skilled trade and technology sectors to all Canadian youth and their influencers.
Admission to the competition is free and is open to the public!
SCC encourages local schools to visit the SCNC to view the many career opportunities that are available to youth and also experience hands on learning with various Try-A-Trade® and Technology activities. School group registration is now available online.
If you would like an opportunity to gain valuable experience as a volunteer, click here for more information and to register.
For partner organizations that are interested in participating at SCNC 2016 as an exhibitor,
click here
to book your exhibit space and obtain additional information on the available opportunities. Exhibit space is nearly sold out.
This competition is the first step in the qualification process to represent Canada
at the 44th WorldSkills Competition, which will take place in Abu Dhabi, from October 14-19, 2017.
Every two years, competitors from the Skills Canada National Competition (SCNC) are invited to participate in the WorldSkills Canadian Trials. Successful participants from the WorldSkills Canadian Trials will make up Team Canada and will compete at the WorldSkills Competition, against the best in the world! The WorldSkills Competition has come to symbolize the pinnacle of excellence in vocational training.
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2017 Skills Canada National Competition
The 23rd Skills Canada National Competition is scheduled to take place from May 31 to June 3, 2017, at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
More than 500 youth participants and several thousand visitors are expected to be at the RBC Convention Centre during this event. More than 40 skilled trade and technology skills areas will be hosted. The 2017 event is a great opportunity for businesses and organizations of all sizes to become involved in shaping the skills of Canada's youth.
For information about how you can become involved please contact:
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WorldSkills General Assembly Niagara Falls 2016
Skills USA and Skills/Compétences Canada will be co-hosting the 2016 WorldSkills General Assembly from October 1-7, 2016, in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Several meetings and special events will be held over the course of this event including a one day Leaders Forum/Conference Programme. Participants will continue the preparations for the 2017 WorldSkills Competition and it will also be the ratification of the WorldSkills 2025 vision.
The online registration for the
WorldSkills Leaders Forum/Conference Programme will be available soon.
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In
dustry News and Stories
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Work Ready
UA Canada, one of Skills/Compétences Canada's Presenting Sponsors for SCNC 2016, describes what being 'work ready' entails for their organization.
What does "Work Ready" mean to you? What does it mean to the industry that you work in? For us in the piping trades it means:
- Show up at work on time every day
- Be dressed appropriately for the weather
- Have your workboots/shoes tied up
- Bring a great attitude
- Be ready to be productive
- Be ready to be safe
- Be ready to take coaching/direction in your work
Other things you may need include an excellent ability to coordinate work with other trades and/or workers with a job that may have anywhere from a few to several thousand workers of all type of skill sets in your work area.
As far as the defined essential skills are concerned you must have:
- Very good math skills including algebra and geometry for layout work
- Very good understanding of process/flow/pressure/temperature and the science behind them to work on all types of pressure piping equipment
- A great knowledge of mechanical systems and mechanical advantage theory to apply to your work
- A great understanding of rigging principles and applications for moving truly large and heavy piping systems and equipment that you will work on
- Excellent training in the theory, use and care of hand and power tools and various types of specialty tools
- A good understanding of computers and computer networking to be able to use equipment for troubleshooting all types of electronically controlled equipment
Work ready is a philosophy for anyone that is trying to be successful in any field of work that they may wish to be part of, and it means having all of the resources and tools at your disposal to make you truly valuable to your employer. You need to have a wealth of knowledge to apply to the workplace that ensure you are ready to not only work hard but to work smart and be productive. This is what being truly work ready is all about in any industry.
Contributed by: UA
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Do You Know What You Don't Know?
Have you invested in training recently?
So far this year, the economic predictions for Canada seem to be not so encouraging, if we listen to the analysts. In such cases companies talk about cutbacks. Unfortunately training is an area, where, in our experience, people tend to cut back. The question then becomes; can you afford that?
Shaft alignment and vibration, while just one small part of machinery maintenance, is nevertheless critical to keeping machinery operating. As an example, if you look at the shaft alignment, well trained teams can save you time in doing the alignments, save you money in considerations of things like thermal growth, and of course downtime. Our Canadian industries cannot afford things like breakdowns.
Do you remember the expression, « knowledge is power »? In the shaft alignment world, it is our experience that training is as shown in Fig .#1. If you were to evaluate your team, which category would you place most people?
To add to the fact that only 19% are trained by experts in the field, if you combine that to the figures of fig. # 2, which is also statistical data, of the average person, you may find yourself in a situation where you are losing money because of this lack of knowledge.
Increasing reliability, and availability of your equipment, is a key factor in increasing your bottom line profits.
We still have not spoken of your change in personnel, or how often they do a certain task. If you have a group of people, sharing tasks such as alignment, each person may only get to this task once or twice per year
, therefore increasing the need for ongoing training.
In most cases, people do not know what they do not know. Training will save you money. Look out for the most important economy, your economy, and make sure you have a team of people that will have the power to save you money.
Fig. #1
*
51% of Aligners have no formal training
*
31% Have been trained on the job or by a salesperson
* 19% Have been trained by an expert
Fig. #2
Statistically, human nature will react in these proportions in a scenario of communication
Contributed by:
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SCNC 2016 Presenting Sponsors
SCNC 2016 Premier Sponsor
SCNC 2016 School Engagement Sponsor 
SCNC 2016 Official Sponsors
SCNC 2016 Supporting Sponsors
Try-A-Trade® and Technology Partners
SCNC 2016 Education and Association Partners
SCNC 2016 Long-term Suppliers
Click here for a list of all sponsors and suppliers for SCNC 2016.
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