ST. PAUL – St. Paul locals competed at the 32nd annual Skills Canada Alberta provincial competition on May 8 and 9 at the Edmonton Expo Centre, including Logan Peters who competed in the carpentry category, Marla Sachko in the car painting category, and Logan Gratton in the autobody repair category.
Gratton, a student at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and employee with CSN Black Ace in St. Paul, will be representing Alberta at this year’s national Skills Canada competition in Quebec in his category, after taking first place provincially.
This will be Gratton’s second appearance at nationals, taking home the bronze medal in 2023. This will also be his last chance to compete at Skills Canada - and this year he is aiming for the gold medal.
“I’m pretty excited for it,” says Gratton. "Everything I do here [CSN Black Ace] is pretty much applied to all the tasks that they give you there,” so he’s feeling confident.
Time, according to Gratton, is the biggest challenge. Getting the job done within the given timeframe is “probably the biggest thing to worry about, and obviously, you have to make sure you’re doing everything to their standard,” he adds.
Marla Sachko, who also works at CSN Black Ace and represented NAIT, placed fourth in the car painting category. She also won the Safety Award in her category.
She said while she feels she could have done better during the competition, she enjoyed it and learned many things.
Sachko says she sees car painting as an art.
“I’m very artistic and I like making things perfect,” she says. “And just seeing the end results came out really well.”
Both Sachko and Gratton encourage young people to pursue careers in the trades.
Entering a trade can be intimidating, they acknowledged, but if someone is interested in pursuing it – “I say, go for it,” says Sachko.
“You can always back out and try something else if you don’t like it,” she adds, explaining she has no background in anything automotive, but still decided to pursue a career in the trades.
“I just jumped into it.”
Gratton agreed. For students just coming out of high school who may not be sure on what to do next, pursuing a trade is always an option.
One good way to gain insight into the trades world is to go at a Skills Canada competition, and just walk around the show, says Gratton.
“There are hundreds of different things to look at... so much cool stuff,” says Gratton. “And if they have an opportunity to compete or sign up, I wouldn’t hesitate... because it’s such a cool experience.”
Gratton will be in Quebec on May 30 and 31 at ExpoCité, joining over 500 participants who will be competing in over 40 categories.
