More than 500 Canadian youth gathered in Charlottetown last week to compete in more than 40 skilled trade and technology categories for the 15th annual Canadian Skills Competition. More than 700 industry professionals were also on site at the event.
Traditional IT categories include the network support competition, Web design, graphics design and IT software applications. Unofficial competitions, such as the IT office, were another means of promoting real-world skills.
The IT office is a competition for students to set up and configure a typical small office environment, which includes loading applications and setting up the network, explained David Green, director of marketing for the AmPac Region of Fluke Corp.
In these environments, you don’t have an IT manager and an office manager and somebody else to maintain the software, he said. “It’s typically one person who has to do it all.”
As an event sponsor and supplier, Fluke provided equipment for use in the electrical, refrigeration and IT network support competitions.
The competition is all about the skills shortage, said Green. Organized by Skills/Comp