A Grade 11 student from Highland Secondary recently won a silver medal at Skills Canada.
Austin Harris took part in the Skills Canada National Electronics virtual competition in late May. He received notification of his win during a virtual ceremony on June 15.
To get to the national stage, Harris first competed locally in a regional competition in March where he won the gold medal. He then advanced to the provincial competition that was held virtually in April and again won gold.
“It was a great experience, and I had a great time competing,” said Harris. “I can’t wait until next year’s competition where I will strive for the gold medal.”
The journey to the national stage for Harris was helped with the skills and knowledge developed in Comox Valley school programs, including the ENTER Programs; NIDES 7842 Robotics Team; Highland Makerspace program and the FIRST Robotics program.
Harris’s future aspiration is to become a robotics engineer and is currently taking the metal mechanical trades sampler program at Mark R. Isfeld to build skills in metal fabrication and machining.
Skills Canada promotes careers in the skilled trade and technology sectors through regional, provincial and national competitions. With COVID travel restrictions in place, competitors in over 50 events from all the provinces and territories competed remotely. Traditionally, the event is hosted in a different province year to year. The 2022 event is scheduled to be held at Canada Place in Vancouver in June 2022.
mike.chouinard@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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