A pair of students from Port Colborne High School are headed for the Skills Ontario provincials after taking home the top two spots in the regional welding competition.

Grade 12 student Myles Jackson took home the gold, and Grade 11 student Nick Peppas snagged silver during the recent regional showdown. Both students are part of the specialist high skills major (SHSM) program for welding, offered at Port High. As part of the SHSM program, Jackson got to do a co-op placement with JTL Integrated Machine, a manufacturing plant in the city, which he said was an incredible experience.

“It’s a very different environment, everything is so much bigger and on a such a larger scale,” said Jackson of his time at JTL. “Working with the guys there, the ones who have been doing this for so long and know so much, you learn a lot really quickly from working alongside them.”

Having nabbed the top spots in the regional competition, the guys have some time before the provincials next month, but they don’t plan to spend it slacking off.

“I’ll be here in the shop every day for practice, working on tolerances and some of the different welds,” said Peppas.

Both students said they found their calling at the workshop in Port High; Jackson is already an apprentice millwright, and Peppas said he is working toward being a millwright and electrician.

The provincial Skills Ontario competition will be held in Toronto on May 6 to 8, but the guys already have their sights set on a bigger goal: The national championships in Halifax.

“All we can do now is practice, and get everything down pat,” said Peppas