Ms Skills - From the Executive Director

Greetings from London, England, Day 6

I want you to imagine, if you can, a competition site that is three times larger than RIM Park in Waterloo and the host site for the Ontario Technological Skills Competition!  As I walked towards the Excel Centre and host of the 41^st World Skills Competition in London, England, I was informed by a guide that this site was 1 km in length and approximately ½ km in width and 1 million square feet – I know that for a fact because my feet are telling me that I walked 1 million square feet today.

All contest sites fit inside the Excel Centre including Gardening and Landscaping.  Today there were thousands of very young people visiting the site; these students were kept entertained because there were many, many hands-on activities for them to try under the caption “Give it a Try”.  I handed out maple sugar candies at the Skills Canada booth – they were a great hit with everyone.  I was pleased to note that the students were also very, very polite and always said please and thank you.

The Ontario students competing at this competition are all doing well; they may be nervous inside but they are all looking very calm, cool and collected.  I am proud to be here to witness their achievements.

It’s been another great day!  I will be back in touch again tomorrow.

Warmest regards,

Ms Skills - Gail Smyth

Executive Director

Ms Skills - From the Executive Director

Greetings from London, England, Day 5

Gary Cronkwright, Past Chair of the Board of Directors, arrived late last night – on time and with his luggage in hand.  We met for breakfast this morning and then spent the day on a sightseeing tour of beautiful London. I am glad to report that I had a wonderful, and very uneventful day.

We just returned from the Opening Ceremony for WorldSkills London and it was an absolutely amazing ceremony.  It began and ended with young people performing song, dance and drama from choirs from four nations:  Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales.  We have discussed for years the need to make sure the ceremonies were youth friendly and tonight it was on the mark!  It even started and ended on time, which was another first for a WorldSkills Opening Ceremony!

They announced that there were nearly 1,000 competitors from 50 countries competing over the next four days, and they are expecting over 200,000 visitors.

Tomorrow I will be heading to the ExCel Center for Day 1 of the competition.  We are becoming quite the experts when manipulating our way on the “Tube,” and tomorrow will be another new experience.  After having my first walk around the site, I will be staffing the booth at Canada House.


All the best,

Ms Skills - Gail Smyth
Executive Director

Ms Skills - From the Executive Director

It's finally here!  Team Canada is prepping and primping for the Opening Ceremonies of the World Skills Competition - WorldSkills London 2011.  Our very own Gail Smyth is on site and will be sending us daily updates!

Greetings from London, England:

At 2:00 p.m. on Friday, September 30^th, we (my husband, Ron, and I) arranged for a car to pick up at our house in Kitchener, Ontario and take us to the airport to pick us up for our 5:00 p.m. flight to Detroit.  The weather wasn’t terribly nice so we arrived at the airport shortly after 3:30 p.m. but still in lots of time to catch our flight.  Unfortunately, the flight from Detroit was late leaving Toronto so we arrived in Detroit 20 minutes before our flight to London was scheduled to leave.

The Captain was very reassuring – “Don’t worry, no one is going to miss their connection" ...famous last words.  Unfortunately, our gate seemed miles away from our departing gate and even though we ran most of the way, our names were being called in the distance and the plane left without us.

“Don’t worry,” said the young man at the gate, “we have you on a flight to Amsterdam.”  So we ran again but this time we were more fortunate even though we were the last two people on the plane.  We had an uneventful flight to Amsterdam; unfortunately we had a five-hour wait for our flight to London, England.  We have now been awake for 24 hours.

We arrived safely in London, England and spent the next 1½ hours waiting for our opportunity to speak to the Immigration Officer.  We were beginning to get a little edgy with each other, however, we anxiously went to collect our luggage and, guess what?  No luggage.  “Don’t worry,” said the nice gentleman at the complaint desk “you should have your luggage in two days.”

Disheartened, we nevertheless managed to figure out how to use the “Tube” and find our way to the Jenkins Hotel where we will be staying for the next ten days during the World Skills Competition.  I have a severe case of sleep apnea and, you guessed it, packed away in my missing suitcase is my sleeping machine so, needless to say, I have had a few very sleepless nights.

Obviously, without clean clothes, we haven’t strayed too far from our hotel waiting anxiously for our luggage to arrive.  I am pleased to report that at 12:00 noon today our luggage arrived safe and sound.


Gail Smyth
Executive Director

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

Stage is set for the world's largest international skills competition

Five students from Ontario will compete for Team Canada at World Skills London 2011

Welcome back friends!  As much as we will miss the warm sunny days of summer, our team at Skills Canada – Ontario is excited for the start of the school year. 

Strange as that may sound, who wouldn’t be excited to cheer on five talented students from Ontario who will be in London, England from 5-8 October representing Team Canada and demonstrating their “skill” on the world stage?  Almost feels like the same infectious excitement that took over Canada when we hosted the Winter Olympics – Oh Canada!

WorldSkills London 2011 will be the world's largest, international skills Competition.  Over 1,000 young people from more than 50 countries/regions will be competing in 46 skill areas.  The ultimate goal for each competitor is to be the best of the best in their chosen contest area.

The five students from Ontario that will be competing for Team Canada are: Jonathan Sinke (Cabinetmaking); Ryan Gomes (Aircraft Maintenance); Tom Middlebro’ (Offset Printing); and, Benjamin Church and Adrian Schut (Mobile Robotics). What an incredible experience this will be for these talented individuals.

I have the privilege of travelling with Team Canada and will be writing a daily blog to share my experience with you.  Stay tuned for updates on our competitors and highlights from this international event which is designed to inspire future generations of skilled, high-quality professionals.

As you are probably well aware, but I think it’s worth repeating often, the mission of Skills Canada – Ontario is to promote careers in the skilled trades and technologies as viable, first-choice career options for young people.  WorldSkills London 2011 is just one of the many great opportunities that young people in Ontario have to explore these exciting and rewarding career opportunities.

The thousands of readers who followed our blog last year got a taste of the award-winning programs and events we coordinate each year.  This year, our readers will still get the same exciting news, plus two new series.  We will be profiling various skilled trade and technological careers, sharing career management tips, and introducing you to past competitors who have gone on to have very successful careers.  I hope you enjoy the new series.

On our Facebook fan page this year we will have some exciting contests.  There will be opportunities for our followers to win an iTunes gift card.

Finally, thank you for being part of our growing online community.  Please feel free to invite others you know (student, parent or teacher) who may want to be part of the excitement and see for themselves that Skills Work!

Gail Smyth,

Executive Director