Steinbach Regional Secondary School had one of its best showings ever at the provincial skills competition Thursday in Winnipeg. 15 of the 26 students who took part came back with medals, including six gold, three silver and six bronze. Grade 12 Vice-Principal James Gibson explains what led to this success.

"I think we just have a really good group of kids. And, we have a lot of dedicated teachers who took a lot of time with these kids and spent time with them after school, during administration days, working with them and training them. We feel like we've got very successful, established programs, we've got kids in there that have a passion to do what they are doing and we also have teachers who have passion teaching what they are teaching and have an amazing knowledge base and expertise."

Gibson adds gone are the days when students take vocational studies as an easy way through high school.

"Trades are tough. They require a lot of dedication from the student, a lot of studying and a lot of practice. The expectations are very high. Our goal is to match industry if not better and that was proven Thursday. One comment from one of our teachers was that some of the skills sets that some of the students had to do, professionals would have struggled with too."

Gold Medal

Lia Penner - IT Office Software Applications
Tehya Funk - Auto CAD
Jasper Froese - Carpentry
Anja Taranenko - Hairstyling
David Messerschmidt - Autobody Repair
Henry Kasper - Car Painting

Silver Medal

Johannes Hert - IT Office Software Applications
Bailey Kehler - Auto CAD
Esthetics - Amy Peters

Bronze Medal

Nicolas Friesen - Mechanical Engineering CAD
Kayla Mantie - Auto CAD
Cade Penner - Cabinet Making
Alex Brontsch - Electrical Installation
Ashley Puhach - Esthetics
Jenna Klassen - Autobody Repair