Earlier this year, students from across the province competed in various Skills Canada Regional Competitions. Top performers in the Regional and Qualifying Competitions automatically earned a spot to compete at the Provincial Skills Canada Competition which was held in April. Congratulations to the following Pembina Hills students who competed and earned medals. We are proud to share and celebrate these achievements with you and your teachers.

You can watch a recording of the awards ceremony below. We’ve included the minute markers so you can watch each of the presentations.

Workplace Safety—1st Jayleana Baron – Barrhead Composite (40:20)

Automobile Technology (41:00)

• 1st Cooper Harbin – R. F. Staples
• 3rd Avery Strydhorst – Barrhead Composite
• 8th Jayden Fluet – Barrhead Composite

Carpentry (51:20)

• 1st Kate Grimmeyer – R.F. Staples 
• 2nd Zaidyn Pipke – R. F. Staples 
• 3rd Morgan Crawford – R. F. Staples 

3D Computer Animation—1st Colin Fearing – Vista Virtual School (1:07:00)

Video Production—2nd Colin Fearing – Vista Virtual School (1:15:45)

Hairstyling Intermediate—3rd Sarah Grainger – R. F. Staples (1:28:25)

Hairstyling Junior—8th Madilyn Carter – R. F. Staples

Hairstyling Senior—8th Georgia Lebsack – R. F. Staples

Photography—11th Marc Hera – R. F. Staples

Skills from Victoria Anderson on Vimeo.

Honourable Mentions

For the second year in a row, Jayleana Baron from Barrhead Composite High School won gold in the Workplace Safety category. This is her third year competing in Skills and her second year competing in the Workplace Safety category. Congratulations to Jayleana and her teacher Dan Sribney.

We want to give a huge shout out to R. F. Staples Carpentry on their medals sweep! We reached out to teacher Kevin MacKenzie to find out how he and his students have achieved such success. He said, “These kids train hard, and I’m a no nonsense kind of a guy. We are here to learn, to work and succeed. The goal is to medal.” And medal they did!

But the successes don’t always come easy. MacKenzie says, “Preparing for skills competition requires an incredible amount of hours of training. Competing under the added challenges that COVID brings, such as mental stress, isolation, and changes in the way we learn and compete, has been a real test for the students.”

The R.F. Staples medal sweep comes on the heels of a past Skills wins by R. F. Staples alumni Adian Victoor, who won both provincial and national gold in 2018. Victoor carried on his success, winning Gold in the post-secondary Carpentry category this year. While this level of success is not easily achieved, it says a lot about the school’s Carpentry program and the people who make it happen. MacKenzie expressed his gratitude for the support from division leaders as well as R.F. Staples Principal Wayne Rufiange, who he says has provided amazing support for the program.

Nationals Qualifiers

As provincial gold medalists, the following students have earned a spot at Skills Canada Nationals—we wish the best of luck to those who will be competing!

• Jayleana Baron – BCHS – Workplace Safety
• Colin Fearing – Vista-Virtual – 3D Computer Animation
• Kate Grimmeyer – R.F. Staples – Carpentry
• Cooper Harbin – R.F. Staples – Automobile Technology