Ontario Skills 2025 ft. Robert Nakishima, Craig Stevenson, Aaron Schoenmaker and David Weatherhead

Welcome to the Talking with a School of Transportation Podcast, presented by Centennial College. With your host, Ian Campbell, and Harnet Gill, let's get into it now. Welcome back to the Talking with the SOT Podcast. I'm Ian Campbell, and in this episode we travel to the Ontario Skills Competition, where we're going to interview some students, some competitors, even some faculty. The president of the college stops by the booth and has an interview with us, so I hope you enjoy it. Unfortunately, I couldn't be a part of those interviews as I was judging the competition for the automotive section, but Harnet Gill does a great job. So listen to him, the sound is loud, now this event was busy, a lot of people there, a lot of things happening, a lot of skills happening, a lot of noise, so the audio is fairly loud, so bear with us. At the end of the podcast, we get to interview Dave Weatherhead, who's associate Dean at the college, and he's very involved in Skills Canada as well as Ontario. So he gives us some great insight and some cool interactions that he's had within the skills world. I hope you enjoy it, and again, I apologize for the sound, but let's get into it now. All right, I'm joined by Chloe. And you're from what school? I'm from Lecajo in Peniten. What grade are you in? I'm in grade 10. Great 10. Awesome. How have you been finding the events so far? Pretty fun. I got here a little earlier. Me and my school were doing the young women's conference, so we just came from that, and that was pretty fun. Can you tell me what you guys cover in the conference? We cover just what it's like to be a woman in the trades and what opportunities you can get, and we had a couple speakers, so that was really interesting. Awesome. Are you interested in any trade in particular? I am interested in the automotive kind of sector, like I like mechanics. Awesome. You're talking to a licensed mechanic right now? Yeah, we'll chat a little bit more about that, so what draws you to the trades? I like being able to work with my hands. I've never, I'm like good at school. I just don't love. I don't love writing all that much. I like more actually working with my hands. Awesome. That's great to hear. And that's very common amongst every technician I ever talked to, so if you're given that answer, that's great. What has this event sort of changed your perspective with the trades at all? I've gotten to talk a lot to a lot of colleges about any apprenticeship programs and any co-ops I could do, so that's been really interesting. Cool. What's the coolest thing you've seen here so far? Probably the cute helicopter sitting right in front of me. Did you get a chance to take a seat inside? No, no, I just got here. Okay, you can hop in the queue and then you'll get to hop in the helicopter later. Yeah, awesome. Awesome. I'm joined by Craig Stephenson, President and CEO of Centennial College, a college that I call a Gem of an institution. And I wish this was being videoed right now because you could see the excitement around us and our booth is pretty phenomenal this morning. There is a lot of buzz in every person I've talked to today. They are drawn in by this helicopter that we have here and then they get to see all the other trades that they can experience. At Centennial College, so what's your involvement with today's event? So I'm here to get a feel for what's going on, to speak to our team, and to really represent the college as well at a couple of events. Awesome. And that's something I'm seeing a lot here with Centennial. We have a lot of people coming in representing not just professors like myself, members of the institution, but we also even have students here who are volunteering their time. They're so excited about the programs that they're in and they're trying to draw more people in and showcase what it's really about. It's been a really amazing event. Is there what's your background with the college in terms of how long have you been with us? So I've been at the college since 2008, first as dean of students, then as vice president. And now for the last six years, although it feels longer, president of this college, yes. Awesome. What was amazing talking to you. Thank you for your involvement here and drumming up the excitement. Yeah, sorry, can I just say thank you to you because this is a passion project. And this really sums up why I'm here. I've been at Centennial 16 years. When I first came, I didn't know what a college was because I came from the UK. College systems very different. I thought I'd be here a couple of years and then perhaps going back into what I knew, which was a university system. I've stayed 16 years and I'm not saying this because we're together right now because for two reasons. One is access that we are truly transforming lives and communities through learning. That's our vision and we live it. And second, it's because of people like us, the passion. The passion for what we do and the commitment to what we do. And you're seeing this today, like you said, there's volunteers, both students and staff going well above and beyond because they believe in what this college does. And, you know, we're in challenging times right now, but we've got to keep focused on what we do best. And that is nurturing the next generation and this is more important than ever. Now, when we think about where Canada is, where the tariff laws are going on over the border, the geopolitics, that a strong Canada, as Alexusia put it, is a skilled Canada. And this is where you as a professor and everybody comes in at Centennial to make sure we're fulfilling that agenda and ensuring the next generation works towards a far more resilient and stronger nation. So thank you for having me. Amazing. Thank you. I couldn't have said any of that better. That is awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. I am joined by Nordea King. And you are an alumni of one of our programs. Can you tell me a little bit about that? I started Centennial in 2020. I was in the aircraft maintenance program and I graduated in 2022. Awesome. And so what are you doing with yourself now? So right now, I'm an aircraft maintenance engineer at Air Canada and I'm endorsed on the Airbus 319-320-321. Awesome. So the, you know, we tend to call it like an aviation program. Is that fair? Okay. So you did an aviation program and it sounds like you got a pretty cool gig. I, you know what? I think I've been very, very blessed. I was fortunate that I had a lot of amazing professors at Centennial. My first professor actually helped me get my first job before I graduated. So I had a job straight out of regiment. It's amazing. Awesome. Can you tell me a little bit about your involvement in today's events? So today, I was, I had an exorbitor booth for Air Canada at the Young Women's Conference. It was about 2,000 students over the course of two days. The first day was elementary school, 7th and 8th grade students. All young girls, which was really cool. So in the other building, it's only female students and they were able to come and ask about the trades and asked about different programs that different schools had. Centennial was over there as well. Today it was the Francophone and the FNMI program as well. So we had a lot of support from different indigenous groups there and it was just a great day all around. Amazing. And I've spoken to some of the people who, some of the young girls who attended the conference and they were static. It had a great time. It seems like it's amazing, so informative. And it's showing them a path that they didn't know existed, which is so important. Less than 3% of aircraft maintenance engineers are women. So it made me very happy to come out there and showcase this amazing opportunity that we have. One of the things I liked about Centennial is that when I started the program, I was not the only girl in the program. And from what I've heard, the female intake has increased since then. And the program is one of the best programs that they have out there. So I feel like really fortunate to be able to have said, "Oh yeah, I went to Centennial." I have a good reputation. Amazing. Is there anyone you want to shout out? Oh, I want to shout out my favorite professor Centennial, Jessica Burns. She's also my mentor. She does a lot of outreach work with the girls at Centennial. I'm just increasing the awareness of aircraft maintenance for women out there and just representing for the three percent. Awesome. And I think you're probably doing per big service as well, because you're back here representing four women in the same thing. So you're taking over a very similar role. It's awesome. I'm trying my best. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. I'm joined by George and you're from what school? Cardinal Asia. Great. Great 11. Great 11. Okay, so what brought you here today? It was just a field trip for my school and it's interesting me just because I like to see the trades. Okay, what's the coolest thing you've seen here today so far? Probably the robot like battles, I think it is. Oh, there's robot battles. There's just down over there. Okay, there's like just robots and there's two people controlling them. And they're kind of just like, it looks like they're fighting. Awesome. All right. So you had mentioned that your dad isn't a trade, right? Yep. He does carpentry, does painting, just tile and everything. Pretty good career path. Yeah. A lot of opportunities. A lot. Yeah. Is it pulling you into the family business? He said, if I'd like to, but he doesn't mind what I do. Okay. Of all of the various trades you've seen here, what do you think would interest you the most? Probably something into the auto and then afterwards the carpentry. Awesome. Okay. You want to shout out anybody? Yeah, I'd like to shout out Victor Tafilo and Carlos's Nero's. Are these the two guys who were too scared to get on the bodyguards? Yeah, cool. Awesome. And we are joined once again by Mr. Robert Nakashima. How are you doing? Good morning, Harnock. I am very well. What are you doing here today? I'm just helping out that the Centail College booth, the skills competition, answering questions, directing students. So what are some of the common questions you get asked? What is this helicopter doing here? Yeah, a lot of people. That's the big cry. Everyone loves the helicopter. Oh, yesterday it was like super packed here. It was non-stop line-ups for the helicopter, for the video game, for the temporary tattoos. We've got to get here. We're going to give you a Mike Tyson-like face tattoo. No, my God. If they can do that, I'm making them do that on you. Yeah, I'm not the tattoo type. Maybe the temporary tattoo. Yeah, it just washes off what's open water they said. So, actually, the basketball, the robotic arm and the basketball who was very popular. Cool. Yeah, I was surprised. All of these displays were quite popular yesterday. I think yesterday was the middle school, six, seven, eight. Yes, that's right. Today is the high schools. That's right. Yeah. So what are you expecting for the day? Probably something similar. I'm not sure about the actual numbers they're coming, but it was like super, super packed. It goes great though. Great attendance at the booth and it was really active. Everybody was helping everybody out. It was a fantastic day. Crazy, but good crazy. Cool. So what we'll do is I'll probably get you to come back at the end of the day and tell me some of the highlights and some of the things you experience throughout the day. Yeah, I just like helping out Centennial. Centennial has been really good to me. I'm glad to be here and help out and give back a bit and so on. And it's a lot of fun and you get a lot of smiles and a lot of excited students and even all of the faculty and I spoke to some of the folks here who are helping us out and their current students in their programs and they're just excited about drawing people into their traits. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So yeah, you see a lot of the usual faces here. So looking forward to it again today. And I'll check out some of the other activities and booths and displays at my lunch break. So there is a tree over there. I don't know if you see that straight that way. Right up to the ceiling. I guess a fake tree and they have guys climbing it. I took a picture of that yesterday of a young, young student. You know, full harness. I think we got against you up that tree. Well, I don't want to take it away from some of the students. But yeah, that was very, very cool. The variety of the trades here is fantastic. And I think that is the, I don't want to say the most surprising, but it's almost like overwhelming how many trades there are and the sheer variety of trades that you see here. Anything from, you know, hair stylist to to aviation to to, you know, computer technologies or IT stuff. It is, it is pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah, there's some traits here that I didn't even know where traits like you said, right? I was just in the walking here in the parking lot. And you know, those big cranes that are on the back of trucks. And I don't know. It's a 30 feet high. The crane, it went as extended. And then they have a cable down to a 300 pound block of cement. And they have to navigate the block of cement through an obstacle course without knocking over the pylons. Amazing. And it was, I go, yeah, you got a train for that. It's a very precise. Yeah, you want someone who's got the expertise. Yeah, so it's just fascinating to see everything that's going on. The hub of activity here is, is fantastic. Yeah, it's starting to buzz and I think it's going to get even louder. And the logistics to put all this together is unfathomable. It's, it's so organized and everything is so well put together and it's security and parking and the police. Even just down to the custodial staff keeping this place clean, like running like clockwork here. It's amazing. I know. It's unbelievable. It's something that everybody should come into an experience. Like, and, you know, the public is allowed in here. It's free admission, free parking. A huge parking lot in the back. It's almost like quarter kilometer from the entrance. It's huge. So, so it's a grand, and you know, we're here for the young young students, you know, so it's a really great to give them exposure to all this and increase their awareness of all these things because, you know, I didn't know when I was doing when I was at high school. I still don't know what I'm doing most of the time. I'm just kind of winging it. Yeah, if you invite someone told me that I'd be a teacher teaching automotive subjects, I would have laughed at them. But, you know, here we are, all of us. And, you know, it's the best move I made in my my life and I'm glad to work with, you know, colleagues like you and everybody else here. That's, we're going to cut all that. Yeah, because I can't be in there. All right. Okay, take care. All right, I'm joined by. Hi, I'm Elasia. I'm in grade nine, and I've got the last question. What's cool to go to? I go to say very zone sound. Awesome. And you competed today. Yes, I competed in the robotics tournament where we built three robots, one which is fully autonomous, works by itself. One that shoots snowballs, but it wasn't very good, but we did get the intake working. Thank goodness. And the last one picked up bricks, both blocks, but it did, it did what a good. Awesome. So what interested you in the trains? I've always had an interest, but as a girl, I've never felt like I was able to until I went to my robotics club at school, and I was like, oh my goodness, I can do outreach. I can do mechanical. I cannot do code because it's so scary. Okay. So, um, you've competed today. Great 11. Great 11. Will you be able to compete again next year? I will be, but I think I want to leave the door open for the next generation of kids. Oh, awesome. Wow. That's so forward thinking in generous of you. You can help guide them. I will definitely be doing that because I, as much as I've been guided, I think things could be tweaks and improved. And I just want to make sure that there's someone there for everyone. Okay. Have you had a chance to take a look at all the different booths? I have, and I've got a lot of free stuff. What's the coolest thing you got? Okay. My best friend got me this, oh, architectural, architectural, associate shirt, and it's a burgundy and it's beautiful. Okay. Cool. What's the coolest thing you've seen? Oh, I love the Milwaukee drills, but honestly, at the Centennial College, the helicopter is pretty cool. Yeah, it is. Everyone's loving the helicopter. Do you just get to sit in it? Or you can sit in it. You can hop in it. Yeah, you can hop in the helicopter. Just, you can go up and down, but don't fly around all over the place. Okay. I'll do my best not to. You want to shout out anyone? Oh, Mr. Versa, Michael Versa, my mentor. Awesome. Cool. Thanks for chatting. All right. And I'm back with Aaron. Aaron Shawnmaker, manager of the National Student Recruitment Team here at Centennial College. Awesome. So we're here at today's event. What's your involvement in today's event? Oh, man, end to end. So myself and my partner and crime Samir over there, we take care of getting this setup. So we're participating in the career exploration showcase portion of Skills Ontario, where the faculty and amazing individuals like yourselves help coach the students and they get the competition side. So we're here to expose as many young people to the different skilled trades programs that we have here at the college and just help them kind of explore another side to the potential career paths that they could have. I love how you said that this is something that's been a repeated thing that I've heard from every student or individual coming in is the different trades is that first everyone thinks, okay, automotive plumbing, electrician, and that's about it. Yeah. And then they see all the other various things here and it kind of blows your socks off a little bit. Oh, a thousand percent. One of the best kept secrets is the world of trades, particularly on Ontario and the exposure. I mean, you and I both know because we're involved in it, but there's so much funding and there's so much need and necessity for skilled trades people in the province right now. What is it? The average age of a licensed skilled tradesperson and the province is between 55 and 65. So they're getting ready to retire and we currently don't have enough people uprenticing and training to replace all those that are going to retire. The career paths are amazing. The starting salaries are absolutely stellar. The career salaries are stellar. Not everybody needs to be a doctor and a lawyer to have a wonderful, financially successful, financially secure life. Absolutely. And what do you feel is the highlight of today's event so far? Oh, man, I mean, by and large, a shameless plug. I'd have to say this in tenio booth, right? So like the helicopter's been really, really popular. But I think overall it's the attendance. I mean, last year they saw around 35,000 people come through the doors over two days, excluding participants in the competitions and things like that. And it's been nonstop ever since we got here since yesterday. And I just think the buy-in from the school boards, the buy-in from the teachers and the guidance counselors to expose all these students to these amazing opportunities. That's the highlight for myself. Skills Ontario is always held a very special place in my heart. I worked for the organization many, many years ago. So anytime we have an opportunity to get out here and we can expose these young people, that's that's the highlight for me, the engagement. Awesome. That's amazing. And you see it with all the smiles on the faces and there's I don't see anyone here who's not enjoying themselves who isn't having an amazing time. We're also seeing so many volunteers come in alumni, current faculty members of course. And then current students, current students that are coming in and want to highlight how amazing their programs are. Yeah, that was a big difference for us this year is the faculty involvement, the student participation. Like we've got aesthetic students over there and they're giving you know temporary tattoos. We've got culinary students helping people decorate cupcakes. And you know our engineering students are helping to showcase this amazing robot that returns a basketball for you. But it's actually in the interactions. We're showing them how to find the waypoints and how to program it. The culture in Centennial, the involvement and the inclusion is just spectacular. I've never seen a more engaged group of individuals and I've worked for a number of different institutions over my career. And Centennial, I left for a little while but they brought me right back in because of the culture here. Amazing. Well, it's great talking with you Aaron. Thanks. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, take care. All right, I'm joined by Dave Weatherhead who is a big shot at skills. And I'm here too. And Ian has appeared finally at the very end of the episode. So we're actually recording this after the competition. Yeah, at the college whether it's not as noisy. Yeah, I apologize for the audio for the last half hour or so. Yeah, it's going to be a little loud there. Helicopter noises and stuff. Yeah, at least you weren't beside the auto collision where they were banging on tin. We were, they were banging hammers into the electric carpentries carpentry. Yeah, the electrical they were setting the wires in the two-by-four. So yeah, we'll see how it comes out. A little bit of woodpeckering background noises. So this is the first time Dave you've been on. Do you want to introduce yourself and tell us your role? Yeah, so my name is Dave Weatherhead. I'm one of the associate deans here at the School of Transportation. Currently my portfolio has got automotive truck coach, heavy equipment and rail. You mean everything? Pretty much. What do we miss in that other? Not sure. But yeah, I've been at the college for quite some time. Most of my time here has been spent as faculty, but I've been in the associate dean's role now for about five years. Yeah, so what, what was your favorite? I'll just ask this on a side note, but what was your favorite thing to teach when you were a faculty? I always liked electrical. The two main areas that I've taught in my career is electrical and steering suspension. Yeah. Both have their merits because the steering suspension is often an area where students excel because they, it's a common spot for them to start off tires, alignments, you know, things like that. But for electrical, it was having them see the, the aha moments or the proverbial, their light bulb turning on. Absolutely. Right. Because it is a complex subject and it's abstract because you can see brake fluid leaking. You can see movement in a joint, but you don't see electrons leaking when the light doesn't turn on. Unless you're really good. I feel like you would have a joke about that. I got the leaking electron. Yeah. So yeah, you know, but it's, it's, it's neat, regardless of what subject to see students, you know, all of a sudden get it. For sure. Right. That's, that's the defining moment for me. One of the defining moment. And that kind of leads you into skills, right? I would assume some of those students that really have that aha moment can kind of tackle the skills challenges. Yeah. So skills is one of those things that there's different schools of thought with it. Some, some folks don't agree with it because it's saying it's, you know, it's a dog and pony show, you know, people are looking to whatever. I look at it differently is that this is giving somebody an opportunity to put themselves on a stage where they're in competition. And a lot of times that competition, although it's with others, it's their own competition because for sure, they are challenging themselves. And I would say this for anybody who is in the college or the high school system right now, is if you get the opportunity to go, don't pass it up saying, yeah, I've come in last or I'm not so confident. Use it as a tool to, to forward yourself. Absolutely. I'd look at it, talking to a lot of employers and in the role that I have, they're always looking for people and you need a separator for yourself. And this is something, if you're doing this on your own accord and challenging yourself, putting yourself out, they're willing to be told where you're wrong and that sort of thing so that you can better yourself. Put that on your resume so that you can have, you know, so that an employer can say that you went out and did this to showcase yourself with whatever level of education and skill you have. If I were an employer and some two people are equal, I take the person that would put themselves out there to challenge themselves. It shows a mission. It shows drivers. Yeah. It's really cool. Yeah. I got to judge this year and last year. And what my favorite part is the high school students that are there that are like, I haven't touched a meter. I don't know how to use this thing, but they're trying it still and pushing themselves. And at the end, I shake their hand and I'm like, this is awesome. Like keep going. We want to see you challenge yourself. It just shows that initiative. And next year, you come back, you know, what you didn't do so well. So, exactly. It's the one guy I'm like, go to the entire, buy the cheapest meter and just play with it. Like, you'll get so much better. If he gets out of the learning. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Don't use electrical sockets. Maybe a battery. It's, it is one of those things to see those aha moments and those learning moments, but it is a fine line as a person who helps organize and design contest. You want to challenge them but not kill them. Absolutely. You want them to go away thinking, okay, you know what, I got this, I just need a little bit more. As opposed to, who, what is this? You know, what have I got? This is not for me. That's not where we want to push that. Totally. So it's a balancing act. Absolutely. One thing I'm sort of curious or I want to straighten out, I guess, last time we recorded about skills. We recorded a podcast about centennial skills. Yeah. And this is something that's a little bit different, but it's a sort of pathway or trajectory that you want to just explain how that works. So I'll go my history of it because I started the college quite some time ago. And in 2001, one of my students had had competed at our centennial contest here and won a birth in the the provincial contest. And I had never been, but because I was involved, I was invited to go and went and saw this absolutely grand. At that point in time, it was done at Rimpark in, in Waterloo and absolutely grand like four ice pads and a field house and, and equipment outside and all kinds of all different trades from floristry, hairstyling, you know, all the way through to have equipment. They didn't have that at the time. Okay. Because skills is grown almost, I don't want to say exponentially, but it's grown a lot for sure in the years. But just to see all of this. And at that time, I went as an advisor. And so I was able to walk around and, you know, through the through the hallways of the different areas because, you know, there's only so much you can do watching your competitor. So, you know, you go break your mind, take a little break off your mind, and walk around, but people doing landscaping, building brick fireplaces. The brick layers is still. It's unreal. It's fun to watch too. It's really neat. Yep. All I know is that I would probably have, you know, mortar everywhere. Yes. You know, all of these different things that are that are makeup skills in general, like there are skilled trades in Ontario. It's just so exciting to see. So, I mean, it's been kind of a rich history for me because the year after that is where I was as as an advisor as well. And they were needed judges. So they hauled me over the fence and said, "Here you go. You're going to judge." And I'll say from that point on, it was fish on. The hook was the set, right, for me. What was that initial feeling of judging? Like, what made you. What set that hook for you? So, at first when you came over, like, I have no idea what I'm doing here. You know, we just prepared skills. That's a little bit incorrect because we did have. I didn't have some knowledge from working at skills in tenials here. But, you know, you're in the provincial stage, you know, this is the province, right? And so it's competitors from all over the colleges, all the colleges in Ontario and, of course, the high school system. So it was a little bit. a little bit daunting to say the least. But the reality of it is is that after that, once you got into it and said, "Hmm, then my mind switched from how can we make this better if I'm allowed back next year?" Right? And not that it was poor. It's just, you know, much like in teaching, you always go, "That lesson was all right, but I can ratchet that up one more click." That thing. And that's where it was born. So after that, because I got to know some of the people that were on the technical committee, the. I just went to them the next year and say, "You know, if there's room, I'd like to be included." And, of course, much like all colleges, it's hit or miss whether you're able to go because of teaching schedules or other things. So if somebody expresses to go, you kind of hook them. So it was a double hook. I got hooked and they got hooked. Perfect. Okay. So it looks like the progression, if you're one of our students, you would start at centennial skills. Or if you're a Mohawk or a fan-child, you'd start there. Yeah. So the committee that is now the technical committee for auto service is a consortium. So there's about seven colleges that are involved year after year after year. So each college does a specific station. So that way, it doesn't leave all the heavy lifting to one particular college. So as an example, Loyalist College looks after the break station and Algonquin looks after suspension and we can go down the list. So the way our progressions here work is those colleges know what it's about. And so some, depending on their size, like we're a large college for apprenticeship and automotive students. So what we have chosen to do is run our own competition to select whatever number of spaces were granted to in the competition. We'll select our winners. So whether it's gold, it's silver, gold, silver, and bronze. In past years, it's just been gold. But we will select ours that way. Other colleges, they just pull their faculty say who's a good candidate. Okay. So there's no one way to do that. To get there really. Yeah. Because if you look at some colleges that might have one intake of the threes or something like that, we're here. There's five, six, seven plus map students. Plus, they really. So we have a whole, the whole gambit of of modalities. So looking at that, we, the fairness way for us is, you know, if I didn't talk to say, you, Ian, or you, Harnak, and say, who's a good candidate? If I missed you, you could say, oh, my, you know, what? I had the perfect one. Yeah. Well, this is fair and open competition when we do it here. And so most times, you know, our students do, well, we've had the number that have gone on to the national competition before from the provincial. So, you know, I think we continue on with what we're doing here because ours does mimic to a smaller degree. What is happening? And it's fun. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. It's one of one of my favorite days of the year to be honest. Jay, make sure I have cookies. Yeah. It's great. And again, I see it with the, with the students and it kind of echoes what you said earlier, those that come back the following year, you know, the first year, maybe they weren't so successful, but the increase in confidence the second year, you know, you see a big change. And that is something that will continue on, especially if they've come back to second year, they've done better. They're now going to see actively that they've improved. And that's so important because day-to-day, you don't see the little improvements that you make. But when you compare to a year ago, you really see it. One of the big things, and I'll give an example, a student from here, Seaton Crawford back in 2014, was all, I don't know, I was saying all the rage, but a lot of the faculty on the 930 side here would say, you know, this, this kid's, he's got it. Yeah. So, he competed and went to provincials, went to Nash, one gold of the provincials, went to Nationals and one silver. Oh wow. No, the Nationals in 2014 were here in Toronto. So, the big trip was to the airport. Yeah. And get out of the airport. Yeah. The following year, he came back one centennial, one provincials, and one in Saskatoon. Okay. So, he came back. So, that is exactly. And some, some, some candidates do that, you know, and the one big thing that we don't really see here on the judging or the, the administration side of a skills competition is what it's like to be there with a clock in your face, right? And you're looking at it and going, I have, oh, I saw it this year, they were sweating some of those through. Oh yeah. Yeah. With the drivability. And of course, I get on the bike and say there's 10 minutes. Exactly. Yeah. So, it's, so the progression for here would be if we hold our, hold our competition, then they go on to the provincials. And then there's only one spot available from the provincials. So, it's the winner of Ontario in secondary and the winner of secondary. Okay. So, they compete together, but separate. So, the tasks could be different. Oh, so there's one high school and, and then one post. Okay. So, on the national level, there's a possibility for up to 26 competitors, one high one secondary and one post secondary from 13 provinces and territories. Awesome. So, this year, the, the, to go on with the sequences, if you, if you win at Ontario and you're eligible to go and your, your call, it says that you can go, then we register for it. It's a quick turnaround this year. This year was literally two and a half weeks. Yeah. And you're off to Regina. Yeah. Team Ontario leaves on the 26th, so which is a week Monday. Awesome. Any Centennial heading there? Yeah. So, we had seven, we had eight gold medals at the provincials. Don't have the list in front of me. That's okay. One contest, there was not a national competition. So, the highest position that you get is gold. Gotcha. But we have, from school of transportation, we have two going, one in auto painting, one in auto collision. Awesome. Cool. So, in other schools, there's cloud computing, there's automation and control, there is something else, 3D game art. Oh wow. And graphic design. So, there's seven in total. Awesome. And unfortunately, one wasn't able to make it due to prior commitments. So, the provincial team had to go to the second place winner and hopefully they're, they're going. So, second place winner was not from Centennial. So, I don't know who it went. Yeah. Yeah. Great. I think that even just highlights the variety of competitions that are happening there, those totally ones that you listed. Because we wouldn't think of some of those when we start to talk about. I walked by the 3D animation. I was like, this is cool. And like the timing. And yeah, what they have to pull off in the criteria was really neat to watch. And robotics and like, there's so much stuff. Yeah. So, since 2009, I've been on part of the national committee as well. And it, it's disappointing in a way. Because once you're in within the curtain area here, that's kind of your land for the next X number of days from setup to judging it here. Yeah. And it is unfortunate that you, there's no time where I can just pop out and go around and see because it is refreshing to see that, you know, just, it is refreshing to see that the youth of today are doing this on their own accord. Yeah. Right. You know, there's, there's hope out there because we often see, you know, the day all they do is head down on their phone. I would say more than hope seeing some of these students. Like, you interviewed a high school girl who was on the robotics team for something. And I haven't listened to the interview yet. But that, I kind of set up the interview and then had to go back and judge. But the, it was my point. Yeah. I was so impressed by the way she handles herself as a high school student in this grand stage. And it's amazing to see. And though beyond hope, these people are going to run the world with what they do. That's so good. I mean, there is another tier. This year is a world's qualifying year. So gold medal winners first choice. If they're eligible, they would go, they would qualify to be part of team Canada. Wow. And the competition is in, I think it's in September. It's, if it's not September, it's close. I'm not part of World's Guild, although I'm wearing the shirt today. It's in Shanghai, China. Oh, wow. So Canada has, I mean, Canada's done well over the years. But you're talking about the entire planet. Yeah. Which is a massive scale. So they'll have, they'll have the same number of competitors that we had in automotive. We had almost 60 competitors. But they are, we'll have, they'll have 60 competitors and one from each country. Yeah. Now Centennial has had success in 2009 or 10. We had a competitor from Ontario, Ryan Gomes, okay, from Centennial. One at, one at provincials, one at nationals, one to team Canada in London, England, brought home a bronze. Oh, wow. In 2014, the same year, seat in, okay, one in the silver. Larry, I think his name is Larry Cameron. One at that and went on and got bronze in South Paul Brazil. Oh, wow. And then just a couple of years ago, Malcolm Matwichuk, they had a special COVID edition. Okay. And he went to, we did one year. Oh, yeah. We had the national competition over Zoom. Wow. Yeah. That was bizarre. Yeah. Nonetheless. And in fact, our student from Centennial Motive Power, one gold. Oh, uh, Colts, Colts. Yeah. I actually, that's funny. Yeah. I just taught Colts, level three recently. Oh, did you? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Colts, Colts was it. And then Malcolm went to Austria. Oh, wow. And brought home bronze and heavy. And that was heavy equipment. Yes. I remember I said a couple of years ago. So very cool. If you're ever at the, for those listening, if you're ever at the campus, uh, right by the cafeteria where the mezzanine is. Yeah. All of our banners from anybody who's, uh, was meddled at the national competition. We're running out of wall. Yeah. So which is great. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Uh, what is, what is skills meant to you over the years? Is there anything that's been really impactful or just this, uh, just seeing the students or what, is there something that sticks out to you? So there's several things. Uh, one is the students like it. Regardless of where I'm judging now in an Ontario because we're, I'm a co-tech chair. Um, we, I don't do any judging unless we're absolutely necessary, just because of all the administration of everything that needs to go on during the day. For sure. Um, but while I was judging and, and I've always been a judge at the national competition, and this is your 16 for me, pardon me, 15 because we missed that year of COVID. The, the first year of. So for me, it's seeing the students in a situation where, you know, you, we've seen, I've seen various levels of students over years or competitors over years, those that, that this is, I got this and very confident too. I've never done this before, but I'm going to battle through it. Um, last year in Quebec City, there was a young lady that was, uh, I was judging. I don't remember where from, but sat there and struggled, struggled, struggled, and then dropped that task, went on to another one, finished that task and came back. And just with that 15, 20 minutes of clear head carried on and, and it went, uh, you know, you got your mind off of it. You got, you know, you, if somebody gets in your kitchen, it's hard to do. For sure. So seeing the students, you know, succeed in that or, you know, battle through something that's maybe a little bit of adversity to them is, is cool. But I'll say this from a professional standpoint, for me, one of the key things that I have for, and you ask personally, is the getting to know colleagues from outside of our school. We have lots of great people here, don't get wrong. You know, the staff here is phenomenal. For sure. And that, that's why when, when Centennial showed up to the provincialists come, like we're good, we're good. But to go and just see what's happening in other provinces and, uh, you know, bouncing ideas off of not only for, uh, skills competitions, but just day-to-day operations. And I'll give you an example, a colleague from Vancouver Community College called me up and I was asking questions about our parts and services program, because they wanted to get one off the ground over there. So, you know, share it some ideas and whatnot. So it's that kind of thing to make sure that, that our trade in not only the city, the province, but now the country is, is, is forward-moving because, uh, you know, it's, it's the tradesmen fantastic to me. Yeah. So a lot of that camaraderie and networking is, is for sure. And I have to shout out Eugenio because he wants to be on the podcast so bad. He barely ran away. Oh, yes, but he, uh, we were trying to hook up over the summer and do podcasts, so that'll be fun. Yeah. Eugenio's, uh, you know, we had him in a contract and then he got a full-time position in Mohawk. Sad to see him go, but happy he's still around for sure. And you know, he's, he's always been very complimentary of what we do here. So that that just shows how all of us work together. Yeah. And I think it's fun to see because not just like obviously we're rooting for Centennial and wanting to see our, our, the pride in our school, but you're also seeing other colleagues wanting that same goal, like I think of Ray and, and Eugenio's and people that I've talked to and they're like, yeah, I really want to see them do well. What are you doing in this program? How are you making this better? And it's just fun to chat and kind of get, you know, and I'll be in a topic. That was the benefit of when we had our provincial PD conferences. Okay. You know, that was the same sort of thing. At the end of the school year, you, you, you go and you listen to new technologies from, from suppliers and vendors and, and, and, and then just, you know, over, uh, pizza and a beverage. Yeah. You have, uh, a conversation that goes, I got something new for next year, and because they're doing it over here, I didn't think of it. But wow. Let's give it a change. Yeah. And hopefully that happens again in the future. We'll see. I will push for it. It's something that I, I push for skills as you both of you know. And, uh, and that's, that's my, uh, if there's going to be a legacy around Centennial, that's for me. That's probably going to be it. But, uh, I also have pushed this to see the PD conference, um, because there's so much value in that. And the reality of it is, uh, it's, you know, to, to just be with like-minded people, uh, when the school year's over, and there's that, uh, yeah, where it's, there's no pressure on you at the, essentially, no pressure. And it's just a, a feel good thing to start the holidays. Yeah. Awesome. Uh, do you have a funny story from skills, whether it's any level that you can think of that, that, that would, uh, be an interesting thing or some of that somebody did that was brilliant or something. I mean, let me see. I'm going to go with story. Okay. Fun. Okay. I figured you'd have a funny story. I'm going to go with funny. Um, so national competition. Okay. In Edmonton 2020, uh, 2012. Okay. Um, I am judging at the transmission station. And there is a, I forget the, the model, but it was probably like a T five as a manual trans, five speed managed transmission, probably a T five. And I get this, I will, for protection of privacy, I won't say what is, but we get this student from a northern part of Canada. And find out through just talking with him that, as we talked earlier, this person was just tapped on the shoulder a couple of weeks ago. Do you want to go to Edmonton? Yeah. Oh, okay. So they, they get Edmonton. And they're not, they're really not prepared. Yeah. But the young fellow had such an attitude that it was just, it was, it was, it was sad because he was put in that situation, but it was funny because of how he handled it. Okay. Right. So he's doing all these papers. So we have a paperwork and the paperwork and questions match the unit on the, on the bench. Yeah. And so one of the questions was this transmission makes noises in all gears except fourth. What is your diagnosis? And he writes staying fourth gear. It goes on. Oh boy. He's not wrong. Sounds like some text. I know. It goes on. And I forget the other question. It says, you know, what would be, what would you need to replace to fix whatever that particular question? He says, and I quote, because I've never forgotten it, the canooter, schnooter, connected to the what you would call a shot. He had to get marks. Do you get marks? I knew I'd call off the bench marking it. I'll tell you that. But, but you may have thought that that was over. Okay. So he went on to the suspension station next. Yeah. And I will never forget this. So they've been asked some information about tires, UTQG, you know, speed rating blah, blah, blah. So what is the speed rating of this tire? No clue. Warp speed. So this guy had these little tidbits at all these things. But you know what? He had really thought, you know what? I'm here in Edmonton. I'm out of my parents' basement. Yeah. And you know what? Somebody paid for me to go, I'm going to just have some fun. And you know what? It got us laughing. And that created a relationship with the kid for the two-day competition. And you just thought, you know what? We'll make sure that this works for him as much as it works for us. That's awesome. Yeah. So there's been some funny ones. There's, you know, there've been some sad ones at Rim Park in Waterloo. When it was there, we had a young girl that was out of her league just kind of the same situation. And she was crying sitting on one of the benches. And so we went and talked to her and said, you know what? Don't use, don't think of this. And she came up afterwards after finishing the competition and said, you know what? You inspired me to carry on with this. It's great. It's the competition doesn't define me. For sure. So that's a feel-good moment for us to make sure that somebody didn't just walk away and sit in the corner and said, you know, you've killed me. And that's what I'd say, what you're looking at, the people who are involved. Yes. That's right. It's not just, okay, we're going to mark a sheet and this is how you did. It's about making connections and reaching out and wanting to see people do well. And I think that's what makes it a great event. And you know, having judged both of you having judged here and at the provincial moon, you know that some of these students have worked very hard to get themselves to this point. And so one of the things that I want to make sure is I don't miss things. So a couple of years now, I've judged the suspension station of the nationals. And we have them do some work. And of course, the vehicles in the air and whatnot. And you see some judges just leaning on the fender and whatnot. It's not my style. So I get on a creeper. I'm underneath the vehicle with them. And I say, you know what? For the next two hours, I am your new best friend. And a lot of, you know, and they come up with some don't want to talk. And that's fine. That's your jam. That's fine. But others, you know, you find out that their brother was a technician. Their brother did this. Their sister is that. Their family is a garage. Their family is a farm, you know, whatever happens to me. So it's kind of neat to meet people. Yeah. And as you all, as both of you know, I'm very shy. I don't like to talk about it. It'll just be 15 minutes. 28 minutes later. We're 28 days. Yeah. Awesome. Anything else about skills or anything like that? I think it was, it's ties it all in. It's been a lot, it's been a love of my life. It's, it is a labor of love. There's a lot of work, a little hard work, a lot of hours. But you know, what at the end of the day, putting on something that's fair. Yeah. And that's the key. As long as it's fair, your talents will, well, students, students, students talents will come out. And so, you know, that's, that's been something that I've always, always, always always enjoyed about it is that we make it fair so that, you know, the best person does say about on top, right? And I would say, like, I know from Centennial, I ran the electrical last couple years and making that was fun. Like, it pushes you and you've done the same thing with the York skills as well as. Yeah. And it's just fun to try something. And sometimes it doesn't work very well. But then you know next year, it's like, oh, it's given us a go. When we used to do the Toronto skills, we used to bug the the Volkswagen. Yeah. And that would be, you know, we'd set it set hours aside just to go and say, what can we do? You know, and so you're right. It is, it is fun to see. But, you know, that character is there to make sure that it's not too much. Sure. It's not too little that it's to end the scale. Like to have a scale of, like, yeah, here's some easy things that you should get it walk in the park. But then there's going to be a tough one too. And it makes it a fun thing to do. As long as it has a balance. Yeah. You know, so I've always even even writing tests for for students in a class 100%. I've always had, you know, questions, different tax taxonomy questions like this. You should get this. This is simple recall. And then there's I usually do that with and then there's the one that I call them the separators. If you know this, you know, really know. Right. I did. I say easy medium hard. I've a whole bunch of medium. I have a few easy and I have a few hard and it balances all out. And those people that can get the hard ones. They've got it. But again, like any test, any skills competition, as long as they've all had the same information. Absolutely. This is like one of the things we do in suspension is in past years, there's been alignments. And if you are familiar with a hunter. Yeah. And then are given a Hoffman. Right. Or something else. So the orientation that what we do is we run a for all competitors, a kind of a little, here's how the machine works. Oh, that's great. Right. So the machine isn't the reason you didn't do well. Yeah. Yeah. Here's get the machine is isn't the reason you did exceptional because yeah. Well, that's fantastic. The same machine I have in my shop. I've used it for years. Okay. Great. But now it will try to level or even play field. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. I love it. Dave, thanks so much for for doing this last year. We had some of the skills high up. So I guess you could say for. Yeah. Yeah. And Bill Kucci and a few of the other guys that were part of it at skills and it was loud too. Yeah. Also those lawnmores guys outside. We'll see if how that picks up. But yeah. Rather than lawnmores than the snow plows. That's true. That's true. We'll take that. Yeah. I'm surprised not to exhaust from our students. That's true too. Yeah. We're gonna write that in order. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks. 500. That's true. Thanks so much for joining us. I look forward to just getting to know you podcasts at some point. Do about teaching and you know. History here a little bit more about your role and what. Yeah. And I will say I appreciate your temperament and personality as somebody learning from a leader per se because you know. And I will say I think you're kind of just me. We'll balance it. I was going. We talked about level. And I think this is the end of the episode. So we'll see what talking with SOT is named in the future because this is our 10th episode for the second season. Oh, is this our 10th episode? Yeah. Okay. So we may have champagne pop. We may. Are we allowed to have it here? No. Okay. So until next time. Thanks for listening. This has been the talking with SOT podcast with Harnet Gill and Ian Campbell. [Music]