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

In this episode Harnek travels to the Toronto Congress Center to live podcast from the Centennial College booth! Tune in for some fascinating interviews with students, competitors, faculty and even the President of Centennial College, Craig Stevenson! As always, every year we talk to Aaron Schoenmaker about the Centennial booth and to complete the episode we interview David Weatherhead, Associate Dean at the School of Transportation. Thanks for listening! 

If you have any content or discussion topics contact us at icampbell@centennialcollege.ca.

Cheers folks!

If you have any content or discussion topics contact us at icampbell@centennialcollege.ca. 

Cheers folks!

Transcript

0:08

Welcome to the Talking with the School of Transportation podcast, presented by Centennial College. With your hosts, Ian Campbell and Hornet 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 Harney 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. And at the end of the of the podcast, we get to interview Dave Weatherhead, who's an 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 uh interactions that he's had uh within the skills world. I hope you enjoy it, and again, apologize for the sound, but let's get into it now. Alright, I'm joined by Chloe. And you're from what school? I'm from Le Cao in uh Penitan. What grade are you in? I'm in grade 10. Grade 10. Awesome. How are you finding the event so far? Pretty fun. I got here um a little earlier. Uh me and my school were doing the like women young women's conference. So we just came from that, and that was pretty fun. Can you tell me what uh what you guys uh 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 like the um automotive kind of sector. Like I like mechanics. Awesome. You're talking to a licensed mechanic right now. No way. Yeah, we'll chat a little bit more about that. So uh what draws you to the trades? I like being able to like 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. Um what about has this event sort of changed your perspective of the trades at all? I've gotten to talk a lot like to a lot of colleges about any um apprenticeship programs and any co-ops I could do, so that's been really interesting. Cool. Uh what's the coolest thing you've seen here so far? Probably the like huge 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 sounds great. Yeah, awesome. Awesome. I'm joined by Craig Stevenson, 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, and every person I've talked to today, they're drawn in by this helicopter that we have here, and then they get to see all the other trades that that they can experience uh at Centennial College. Uh 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 uh the college as well at a couple of events. Awesome. And 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 uh a really amazing uh event. Um is there um uh what 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, uh president of this college. Yes. Awesome. Well, it was amazing talking to you. Uh thank you for your involvement here and drumming up the excitement I've seen. 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 system was very different. I thought I'd be here a couple of years, and then perhaps go to back into what I knew, which was the university system. I've stayed 16 years, and I'm not saying this because we're together right now, but 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 secondly, it's because of people like yourself, 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 uh the next generation. And this is more important than ever now, when we think about where Canada is with the tariff wars, what's going on over the border, the geopolitics, that a strong Canada, as Alex Usher 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 I couldn't have said any of that better. That is awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. I am joined by Nordia King. And you are an alumni of one of our programs. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Um, 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, and 321. Awesome. So the uh, you know, we tend to call it like an aviation program. Is that fair? Yeah, okay. So you did an aviation program, and it sounds like you got a pretty cool gig. I I you know what, I think I've been very, very blessed. Um 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 graduation. Awesome. Uh, can you tell me a little bit about uh your involvement in today's events? So today I was I had an exhibitor booth for Air Canada at the Young Women's Conference. It was about 2,000 students over the course of two days. Um the first day was elementary school, seventh and eighth grade students, um, all young girls, which was really cool. So in the other building, it's only um 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. Um 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 deal all around. Amazing, and I've spoken to some of the people who uh uh some of the young girls who attended the conference, and they were static. They 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 three percent 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, like, oh yeah, I went to Centennial because it has a good reputation. Amazing. Uh 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, um, just increasing their awareness of aircraft maintenance for women out there and just representing for the 3%. Awesome, and I think you're probably doing her a 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. Trying my best. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, I'm joined by George. And you're from what school? Cardinal Legion. What grade? Grade 11. Grade 11. Okay, so uh what brought you here today? Uh it was just a field trip for my school, and it's interested me just because I like to see the trades. Okay, what's the coolest thing you've seen here today so far? Probably the like robot like battles, I think it is. Oh, there's robot battles? There's uh 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, uh, so you had mentioned that your dad is in a trade, right? Yep. He does carpentry, he does painting, he does tile and everything. Pretty good career path. Yeah, a lot of opportunities. A lot, yeah. Is he pulling you into the family business? He said if I'd like to, but he doesn't mind what I do. Okay. Um of all of the various trades you've seen here, which do you think would interest you the most? Probably something into auto. And then after would be carpentry. Awesome. Okay. Uh, you want to shout out anybody? Yeah, I'd like to shout out Victor Tefilo and Carlos Esneros. Are these the two guys who were too scared to get on the bike? Uh cool, cool. Awesome. Thanks. And we are joined once again by Mr. Robert Robert Nakashima. How are you doing? Uh good morning, Harnick. I'm very well. What are you doing here today? Uh just helping out at the Centale College booth, uh at the skills competition. Um, answering questions, uh, directing students. So, what are some of the common questions you get asked? Um, what is this helicopter doing here? Yeah, a lot of people, that's the big draw. Everyone loves the helicopter. Oh, yesterday it was like super packed here. It was non-stop lineups for the um the helicopter, for the video game, for the the temporary tattoos. We gotta get your we're gonna give you a Mike Tyson like face tattoo. No. Oh my god, if they can do that, I'm making them do that on you. Yeah, I'm not the the tattoo type. Maybe the temper maybe the temporary tattoo. Yeah, it just washes off what's open water, they said. So actually, and actually the basketball, the robotic arm and the basketball, a hoop was very popular. Cool. Yeah, I was surprised. Um all of all of these displays were quite, quite popular yesterday. I think yesterday was the uh middle school six, seven, eight. Yes, I think today is the high schools. That's right. Yeah. So what are you expecting for the day? Um uh probably something similar. Um uh I'm not sure about the the actual numbers that are coming, but it was like super, super packed. Okay, but it was it was great though. Great um, great uh, you know, attendance at the booth, and it was uh really active and everybody was uh helping everybody out. It was a fantastic day. Crazy, but uh crazy, good crazy. Cool. So what we'll do is I'll probably get you to uh come back at the end of the day and uh tell me some of the highlights and you know some of the things you experienced throughout the day. Sound good? Yeah, I just like you know helping out Centennial. Centennial's been uh really good to me. I'm glad to be here and and help out and give back a bit and and so on. And and it's uh a lot of fun and you get a lot of smiles and a lot of excited uh students and uh yeah, yeah. Even all of the the faculty, and I I spoke to some of the folks here who are helping us out, and they're they're current students uh in their programs, and they're just excited about drawing people into their trades. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, you see a lot of the usual faces here, so so uh looking forward to it again today. So and uh I'll check out some of the other other uh activities and booths and displays uh at my lunch break. So there is a tree over there. I don't know if you see that straight that ways, right up to the ceiling. It's a oh yeah, yeah, I guess a fake tree. And I they have guys climbing it. I I took a picture of that yesterday of a young student, all you know, you know, full harness. I think we gotta get you up that tree. Well, I don't want to take it away from some of the students. Um, but yeah, that was uh that was uh very very cool. All the the variety of the trades here is fantastic. It's and I think that is the the I don't want to say the most surprising, but it's almost like uh overwhelming how many trades there are and the sheer variety of trades uh that you see here. Anything from you know uh hairstylists to to aviation to to uh you know computer technologies or IT stuff, it is uh it is pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah, there's some trades here that I didn't even know were trades, like you said, right? I 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 it's 30 feet high. The crane when it's 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 gotta train for that. It's it's a very precise. You want someone who's got the expertise. Yeah, so uh it's just fascinating um to see everything that's going on. The hub of activity here is is uh fantastic. Yeah, it's starting to buzz, and I think it's gonna get even louder. And the logistics to put all this together is uh unfathomable. It's it's so organized, and everything is so well put together, and there's security and parking and the police. Even just gonna head down to the uh custodial staff keeping this place clean. Like I mean, it's running like clockwork here. It's amazing. I know, it's unbelievable. It's something that everybody should come and uh and experience. Like and you know, the public's allowed in here. It's free admission, it's free parking, a huge parking lot in the back. I it's almost like a quarter kilometer from the entrance. It's huge, so so it's uh great. And and you know, we're here for the young young students, you know. So it's uh really great to give them exposure to all this and increase their awareness uh of all these things because you know I didn't know what I was doing when I was in high school. I still don't know mostly what I'm doing. Most of the time, I'm just kind of winging it. Yeah. If you if I if I 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 um, you know, it's the best move I made in my my life, and I'm glad to work with uh, you know, colleagues like you and everybody else here. It's uh we're gonna cut all that. Yeah. That can't be in there. All right. Cool. Okay, take care. All right, I'm joined by Hi, I'm Alasia, I'm in grade nine, and I forgot the last question. What school do you go to? I go to St. Mary's own sound. Awesome, and you competed today. Yes, I competed in the robotics tournament where we built three robots, one which is fully autonomous, uh, works by itself, one that shoots uh snowballs, but it wasn't very good, but we did get the intake working, thank goodness. And the last one picked up bricks, uh, well blocks, but uh it did it it did what it could. Awesome. So what uh interested you in the trades? I've always been 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. What grade are you in? Grade 11. Grade 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 and 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 uh things could be tweaked 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 uh 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 uh 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? Um Mr. Versava, Michael Versava, my mentor. Awesome. Cool. Thanks for chatting. All right, and I'm back with Aaron. Aaron Shawnmaker, the manager of the national student recruitment team here at Centennial College. Awesome. So we're here at today's event. Uh, what's your involvement in today's event? Oh man, end-to-end. Uh, so myself and my partner in crime, Samir over there, we uh we take care of getting this uh set up. So we're participating in the career exploration showcase portion of Skills Ontario, uh, where the faculty and uh 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 uh and just help them kind of explore another another side to the potential career paths that they could have. I love how you said that. This is something that's been a um repeated thing that I've heard from every student uh or individual coming in is the different trades. Because at 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 their socks off a little bit. Oh, a thousand percent. One of the best kept secrets is the world of trades, particularly in 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 tradespeople in the province right now. What is it, the average age of a licensed skilled tradesperson in the province is between 55 and 65, so they're getting ready to retire. And we currently don't have enough people apprenticing 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 uh successful, financially secure life. Absolutely. Um, and what would what do you feel is the highlight of today's event so far? Oh man, I mean, uh by and large, I'd a shameless plug, I'd have to say the Centennial 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 um participants in the competitions and things like that. And it's been nonstop ever since we got here, since yesterday. And uh I just think the 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 uh Ontario has always held a uh very special place in my heart. I was uh uh 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 that's amazing. And uh I 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 hasn't isn't having an amazing time. We're also seeing so many volunteers come in, uh alumni, current uh 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 the faculty involvement, the uh the student participation. Like we've got aesthetic students over there in there giving uh uh you know temporary tattoos. We've got culinary students helping people decorate cupcakes, and you know, our engineering students are helping to showcase this uh amazing robot that returns a basketball for you, but it's actually in the interactions. They're showing them how to find the waypoints and how to program it. The 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 uh Centennial it's I left for a little while, but they brought me right back in because of the culture here. Amazing. Well, it was great talking with you, Aaron. Thanks, Harsh. 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. Welcome in. Yeah, so we're actually recording this after the competition. Yeah, at the college, where it's not as noisy. Yeah, I apologize for the audio for the last uh half hour or so. Yeah, it's gonna be a little a little loud there, helicopter noises and stuff. Yeah. Uh at least you weren't beside the uh autocollision where they were banging on tins. We were beside They were banging hammers into they were doing carpentry stuff. Yeah, the electrical, they were setting the wires in the two by fours. So yeah, we'll see how it comes out. A little bit of uh 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 uh my name is Dave Weatherhead. I'm uh one of the associate deans here at the School of Transportation. Uh currently my portfolio has got automotive, truck coach, heavy equipment, and rail. You mean everything? Pretty much. Yes. What are we missing out of there? Yeah. Um not sure. Uh but yeah, I've been I've been at the college for quite some time. Most of my time here has been spent as faculty, uh, but I've been in the associate dean's role now for about five years. Yeah. So what uh what was your favorite? I'll just ask this uh on a side note, but what was your favorite thing to teach when you were faculty? Uh I always liked electrical. Did you? I I I two main areas that I've taught in my career here is electrical and steering suspension. Yeah. Uh both have their merits because the steering suspension is often an area where students excel because they it's it's a common spot for them to start off tires, for sure, alignments, you know, things like that. Uh but for electrical, it was having them see the the aha moments or the proverbial their light bulb turning on. Absolutely. Right. Uh, 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 Jay would have a joke about that. I got the leaking electrons. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's 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 moments. 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 and kind of lead you that way. So skills is one of those things that um 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 they are challenging themselves. Um, and I would say this for anybody who is in the college or the high school system right now, um, 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. Um I'd look at it talking to a lot of employers in the 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 there, willing to be told where you're wrong and that sort of thing, so that you can better yourself. Um put that on your resume so that you can have uh you know, so that an employer can say that you went out and did this to showcase yourself um with whatever level of education and skill you have. Uh if I were an employer and some two people were equal, I take the person that would put themselves out there uh to challenge themselves. It shows initiative, it shows drive, yeah, willingness to try. It's really cool. Yeah. I got the judge this year uh and last year. Uh 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 and pushing themselves. And at the end, I shake their hand and I'm like, This is awesome. Like, keep going. We want to 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. I told one guy I'm like, go to Canadian Tower, buy the cheapest meter, and just play with it. Like you'll get so much better. Just if you get zapped, you're learning. Yeah, exactly. Don't use electrical sockets, but maybe a battery. Yeah, yeah. It's uh it is one of those things to this to see those aha moments and those learning moments, but it is a fine line as a as a person who helps organize and and design contests. You want to challenge them but not kill them. Absolutely. But you want them to go away thinking, okay, you know what, I I I got this, I just need a little bit more, as opposed to what is this? Yeah, you know, what have I got? This is not for me. That's not where we want to push that. That's so it's uh it's a balancing act. Absolutely. Um, 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. Um, and this is something that's a little bit different, but it's a sort of pathway or trajectory. So do you want to just explain how that uh how that works? So I I'll go my history of it because I started the college quite some time ago, and in 2001, um one of my students had had uh competed at our centennial contest here and won a berth in the um the provincial contest. And I had never been, but because I was involved, I was invited to go uh and went and saw this absolutely grand. Um at that point in time was done at Rim Park in in Waterloo. Um, and absolutely grand, like four ice pads and a field house and and equipment outside and all kinds of this of all different trades from floristry, hairstyling, um, you know, all the way through to heavy equipment. Uh yeah, it wasn't they didn't have that at the time, but uh because skills has grown almost, I don't want to say exponentially, but it's grown a lot for sure uh in the years. But uh just to see all of this and and and at that time I went as an advisor, and so I was able to walk around and you know uh through the uh th through the uh hallways of the different areas because you know there's only so much you can do watching your competitor. Um so you you know you go break your mind, um take a little break off your mind and and uh walk around. But people doing landscaping, building brick fireplaces, the brick layers is 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. Um you know, all of these different things that are that are make up skills in general, like there are skilled trades in Ontario, it's 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 a an advisor as well, and they were needing judges, so they hauled me over the fence and said, here you go, you're gonna judge. And um I'll say from that point on it was fish on. The hook was the hook was set right for me. What what was that uh initial feeling of judging? Like what made you what set that hook for you? So it at first when you came over, I'm 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 did have some knowledge from doing working at Skills Centennial here. But you know, you're at the provincial state job, this is the province, right? And so it's competitors from all over the colleges, uh all the colleges in Ontario, and of course the high school system. So it was a little bit um a little bit daunting, uh 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 it's just you know, much like in teaching, you always go, that lesson was all right, but I yeah, I can ratchet that up one more click, kind of thing. So uh and that's and that's where it was born. So uh uh after that, I bec uh because I got to know some of the people that were um on the technical committee, the I just went to them the next year and say, you know, if if there's room, I'd like to be included. And of course, much like all colleges, it's it's hit or miss whether you're able to go because of teaching schedules or or other things. So uh if somebody expresses to go, you kind of hook them. So it was a double hook. I got hooked and they got hooked. So yeah. 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 Fanshaw, you'd start there. Is that true? So so um the committee that is now the technical committee for uh auto service uh 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 one particular college. So as an example, Loyalist College looks after the brake station and Algonquin looks after suspension, and and we can go down the list. Yeah. Um 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 we're granted to to in the competition. Uh we'll select our our winners. So whether it's gold and silver, gold, silver, and bronze, in past years it's just been gold. Um but we will select ours that way. Other colleges they just pull their faculty and say who's a good candidate. Okay. Um so so it's it's it there's no one way to to do that. To get there, really. Yeah, because if you look at some some colleges that might have one intake of level threes or something like that, we're here, there's five, six, seven plus map students, plus stay released. Post-secondary students, night release, night. So we have a whole the whole gambit of uh of modalities. So looking at that, we we the fairness way for us is is you know, if if I didn't talk to say you Ian or you Harnick 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 a number that have gone on to the national competition before from the provincials. 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 in the world. 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 and we're all good. It's great. And again, I see it with the with the students, and this 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 gonna 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, yeah, is you you really see it. One of the big things, and I'll give you an example, uh student from here, Seaton Crawford, back in 2014, um was all I don't I would say uh not 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 national one gold of the provincials, went to nationals and won silver. Oh wow. It now the nationals in 2014 were here in Toronto, so the big trip was to the airport. Yeah. And get out of the airport if we went to the airport. Um the following year he came back, one centennial, one provincials, and one in Saskatoon. Okay. So he came back. So that that is exactly and some some some candidates do that, uh, you know, and and the one big thing that we don't really see here on the 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 students. Yeah, with the drivability. And then of course I get on the bike and say there's ten minutes. Exactly. Right. So it's uh it's uh so the progression for here would be if if uh 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 post-secondary and 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 at the national level, there's a possibility for up to twenty-six uh competitors, one high school one uh secondary and one post secondary from thirteen uh provinces and territories. Awesome. So this year the um the to go on with the sequence is if you if you win at Ontario and you're eligible to go and your your college says that you can go, um, then we register you for you. It's a quick turnaround. This year this year was literally two and a half weeks. Yeah, and you're off to uh Regina. Yeah. Uh team Ontario leaves on the 26th, so which is a week Monday. Awesome. Yeah. Any Centennial heading there? Yeah. So we had seven, uh we had eight gold medals at the at the uh provincials. Um don't have the list in front of me. That's okay. Um one contest there was not a national competition, so the highest position they could get is gold in the uh but we have uh from School of Transportation, we have two going. Uh um one in uh auto painting, okay, one in auto collision. Awesome, cool. Um, so in other schools, there's cloud computing, there's automation and control, there is something else, 3D game art, oh wow, and uh graphic design. So there's seven in total. Awesome. Um, and unfortunately, one wasn't able to make it due to prior uh 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 to. Yeah. Yeah, great. I think that even just highlights the uh variety of competitions that are happening there. Those two ones that you listed, because we wouldn't think of some of those when we start to talk about crazy. I walked by the 3D animation, I was like, this is cool, and like the timing and yeah, what they have to pull off and the the criteria was really neat to watch. And and robotics, and uh, there's so much stuff. Yeah. It's 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 uh within the curtained area here, that's kind of your land for the next X number of days from setup to judging deterrent. Um and it is unfortunate that you that 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 um youth of today are doing this on their own accord. Yeah. Right? You know, that there's there's hope out there because we we often see, you know, the youth of today, all they do is head down on their phone. I would say more than hope seeing some of these students. Like we you interviewed a high school girl who was on the robotics team uh for something, and and I 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 I was I was so impressed by the way she handled herself as a high school student in this grand stage, and uh it's amazing to see, and though uh beyond hope, these people are are gonna run the world with what they do. It's so good. I mean, since uh there is another tier, uh this year is a world's qualifying year. Uh so gold medal winners uh first choice, if they're eligible, they would go, they would uh 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 Skills, although I'm wearing the shirt today. But um it's in Shanghai, China. Oh wow. Um so Canada has, I mean, uh Canada's done well over the years, uh, but you're talking about the entire planet, yeah. Yeah, which is a massive scale. Right. So they'll have they'll have the same number of competitors that we had in automotive. We had almost 60 competitors. Um But they are we we'll have they'll have 60 competitors and one from each country. Yeah. Um now Centennial has had success in in 2009 uh or 10. Uh we had a competitor from Ontario, Ryan Gomes, okay, from Centennial. Uh 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 Seaton uh won uh the silver, uh Larry uh uh I think his name was Larry Cameron, uh won at that and went on and got bronze in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Oh wow, and then just a couple of years ago, yeah. Malcolm Matwichuk uh he had they had a special COVID edition. Um and he went to um Zoom. Done over Zoom. We did one year. Oh yeah. We had the national competition over Zoom. Wow, yeah, that was bizarre, yeah, but nonetheless. And in fact, our student from Centennial Motive Power won gold. Cool. Oh, uh Colts. Colt Colt. I actually that's funny. Yeah. I just taught Colt level three recently. Oh, did you? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, Colt Colt was it, and then uh Malcolm went to Austria. Oh wow, and brought home bronze in heavy equipment. And that was heavy equipment, yes. I remember that's a couple of years ago. So very cool. If you're ever at the uh for those listening, if you're ever at the campus, uh right by the uh cafeteria where the mezzanine is, yeah, all of our banners from anybody who's uh who's medaled at the national competition, we're running out of walls. Yeah. So which is a great thing. Yeah. Very cool. Uh what has what has 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 what is there something that sticks out to you? So there's several things. Uh one is the students, like it's if I regardless of where I'm judging, now in Ontario, because we're I'm a co-tech chair, um, we d 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 year 16 for me, uh pardon me, 15 because we missed that year of COVID, the the first year of COVID. Um 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 gonna 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 and it went uh you know, you got your mind off of it. You got you know, you s if somebody gets in your kitchen, it's hard to do. So seeing the students, you know, uh succeed in that or you know, battle through something that's maybe a little bit of adversity to them is is cool. Uh but I'll say this from a professional standpoint, uh for me one of the key things that I have for in uh US personally is the uh getting to know colleagues from outside of our school. We have lots of great people here, don't get me wrong. You know, the staff here is phenomenal. For sure. And that that's why when when Centennial showed up to the provincial scope, like we're we're good, we're good. Um, but to to go and just see what's happening in other provinces and and uh you know bouncing ideas off of not only for uh skills competitions but just day-to-day operations and um I'll give you an example a a colleague uh uh from Vancouver Community College called me up and I was asking questions about our parts and services program uh because they wanted to get one off the ground over there so you know shared 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 forward moving because uh you know it's it's trade's been fan fantastic to me. Yeah. So a lot of that uh camaraderie and and networking is is for sure huge and I have to shout out Eugenio because he wants to be on the podcast so bad. From Mohawk he barely ran over Centennial yes but yeah he uh we we're trying to hook up over the summer and do a podcast with him so that'll be fun yeah Eugenio's uh um you know we had him in a contract and then he got a full-time position at Mohawk sad to see him go but happy he's still around for sure and you know um 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 and I think it's fun to see because not just like obviously we're rooting for Centennial and 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 some 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 albeit an off 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 uh and then just you know over uh pizza and a beverage 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 go 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 yeah as you both of you know and uh and that's that's my uh if there's gonna be a legacy around Centennial that's for me that's probably gonna be it but uh I also have pushed this to see at 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 yeah where it's there's no pressure on you at the essentially no pressure and it's just uh 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 would uh be an interesting thing or some that somebody did that was brilliant or something uh okay funny I figured you'd have a funny story I'm gonna go with funny um so national competition in Edmonton 2020 uh twenty twelve okay um I am judging at the transmission station and there is a I forget the the model but uh it was probably like a T5 it was a manual trans five speed manual transmission probably a T5 and I get this I won't for protection of privacy I won't say what it is we get this student from a northern part of Canada and find out through just talking with them that as we talked earlier this person was just tapped on the shoulder a couple of weeks ago and said hey do you want to go to Edmonton? Yeah okay so they they get to 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 paper so we have a paperwork and the paperwork and questions match the unit on the on the bench and so one of the questions was this transmission makes noises in all gears except fourth what is your diagnosis and he writes stay in fourth gear it goes on. Oh boy he's not wrong sounds like some text I know so it goes on and I forget the other question question it says you know what it 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 Knuter Schnooter connected to the whatcha McCollate is shot. He had to get marks you gave him marks I oh I I nearly fell off the bench marking it I'll tell you then 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 um 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 and all these things but you know what he handily thought you know what I'm here in Edmonton I'm out of my parents' basement and you know what somebody paid for me to go I'm gonna just have some fun and you know what he got us laughing and that created a relationship with the kid for the two day competition and you just thought you know what all right we'll uh we'll make sure that this uh 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 uh Rim Park uh in uh Waterloo when it was there we had a we a young girl that was um out of her league just kind of the same situation and and and and she was crying sitting on one of the benches. Yeah and so we went and talked to her and said you know what don't use don't think of this and and she came up afterwards after finished the competition and said you know what you inspired me to to carry on with this it's not great it's the the competition doesn't define me for sure so that that that's that's a feel good moment for for us to make sure that somebody didn't just walk away and sit in a corner and uh said you know you you've you've you've killed me and that's I'd say what you're looking the people who are involved yes and the judges it's not just okay we're gonna mark a sheet and this is how you did it's about making connections and reaching and caring and and absolutely wanting to see people do well and I think that's what makes it a great event. And and you having judged both of you having judged here and at the provincials um you you know that some of these 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 lot for a couple of years now I've j I've judged at the suspension station of the nationals and we have them do some work and of course the vehicle's in the air and 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. Yeah and a lot of you know and and they come up with stuff. Some don't want to talk and that's fine. That's 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 has a garage their family has a farm you know whatever it happens to be 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 at all it'll just be 15 minutes. 28 minutes later we're 28 days awesome anything else uh about skills or or anything like that I I think that was that ties it all into it's been a lot it's been a love of my life it's uh it is a labor of love there's a lot of work there's a lot of hard work a lot of long hours but you know what at the end of the day uh putting on something that's fair yeah um and that's the key as long as it's fair um your talents will show students the 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 um so that you know the best person does come out on top right and and I would say like I know from Centennial I've ran the electrical the last couple years and making that was fun like it pushes you and you've done the same thing with the the York skills as well as uh SSB skills as well yeah and it's just fun to to try something and it sometimes it doesn't work very well but then you know next year it's like oh let's give us a go. When we used to do the Toronto skills we used to bug the the the Volkswagen and that would be you know we'd we'd set it set hours aside just to go and say what can we do yeah you know and and so you're right it is it is fun to see but you know that caring concern is there to make sure that it's not too much or it's not too little that it's uh a walk too easy and the scale like the scale to have a scale of like yeah here's some easy things that you should get a walk in the park but then there's going to be a tough one too and it makes it a a fun thing to do as long as it has a balance. Yeah right you know so I've always even even in writing tests for for students in a class 100% I've always had you know questions different tax taxonomy questions like this you 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. Yeah if you know this you really know that stuff I do I say easy medium hard I have 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. Yeah absolutely that's like one of the things we do in suspension is um in past years there's been alignments uh and if you're familiar with a hunter yeah and then are given a Hoffman or something else so the uh um orientation night what we do is we run a for all competitors a kind of a little here's how this the machine works. Oh that's great. Yeah right so the machine isn't the reason you didn't do well yeah here's get comfortable with the isn't the reason you did exceptional because yeah oh that's fantastic the same machine I have in my shop I've used it for years okay great but now it it will try to level or even your playing field. Yeah yeah well that's awesome I love it Dave thanks so much for my pleasure for doing this last year we had some uh of the skills uh high ups I guess you could say for for skill interview that's right Ian and Bill Coochie and a few of the other guys that were part of it at skills and it was loud too um also those lawnmower guys outside we'll see if how that picks up but yeah rather the lawnmowers than the the snow plows that's true that's true we'll take that yeah I'm surprised not the exhaust from our students that's true too yeah running right down yet give it a few minutes that's true awesome B500 as a study that's true thanks so much for joining us I look forward to uh just a getting to know you podcast at some point too about teaching and and you know history here a little bit more about your role and what yeah and and I will say I appreciate your temperament and personality as somebody learning from uh a a leader per se because uh you know and I will say I think you're kind of just meh we'll balance it out I was going we talked about level nailed it sorry idea anyway all right and I think this is the end of the episode so uh we'll see what uh talking with so t is named in the future because this is our tenth episode for the second season oh is this our tenth episode yeah okay so we may have to champagne pop we may have uh I'm are we allowed to have that here no okay another test you failed yeah so until next time thanks for listening this has been the talking with so t podcast with Harnett Gill and Ian Campbell thanks for listening