Skills Work!® On The Road - Hamilton/Niagara

To me September has always meant new beginnings.  I know it is fall, the season where things die and start to hibernate, but to Skills Canada-Ontario Liaison Officers the season of fall is when it all begins!

This is my first September with Skills Canada-Ontario and it has been busy! The first couple weeks of the new school year were spent in our head office in Kitchener.  All the liaison officers came together to learn this year's “Skills Work!® What’s Out There?” in-school presentation.  This year the presentation has surpassed all of our expectations!  I was excited to see how students would respond.

I hit the road to deliver my first presentations of the year is a tiny town called Fonthill in the Niagara region.  It was a beautiful day!  The students at Fonthill welcomed me to their country school along with two little mice that decided to join the presentation. The students were excited to learn about different opportunites available to them and were especially interested in Renewable Energy projects.  This doesn’t surprise me given that Fonthill has a Specialized High Skills Major focused on this topic. 

I also had a handful of girls interested in coming to the "Skills Work!® for Women" Networking Dinner in St. Catharines! This was exciting for me because this year I am planning the dinner.  These students were very excited to have the opportunity to meet other women who are already in skilled trade and technology careers.  I was thrilled to offer this opportunity to these girls.

Another exciting thing happened this week.  I was able to schedule a presentation at Parkview Secondary School.  Parkview is a unique inner city school dedicated to helping students who are considered “at-risk.”  The guidance counsellor was excited to take my phone call and thrilled that I would take the time to present to her students. There is so much potential in them, and because of government grants and scholarships, they can get a great education at an affordable cost.  I am looking forward to presenting at Parkview and show these students the opportunities that are available to them.  

That’s all for On The Road in the Great Lakes region.  I can’t wait to get out and present to more schools!


April Albano
School Liaison Officer