College of the North Atlantic’s Prince Phillip Drive campus was recently buzzing with activity as students tried their hands at various skilled trades.

Skills Canada’s annual Skilled Career day saw over 300 young people ranging from junior high to post secondary compete in competitions, and hundreds more pass through the halls to get a look at what some of the careers on display were all about.

Chad Walsh and Riley Branton spent the day competing in the robotics competition—in which they had to build and code their own robot.

Branton, who describes himself as an “amateur programmer” with about three years experience, was the one who did most of the coding for their robot.

He says he had to use Java to program it, which is a program he had never used before and had to learn it “overnight.”

Stephanie Squires, meanwhile, was part of a booth set up to teach people about the aircraft maintenance program at CNA.

At the front of the table was a PT6 turbine engine, which Squires says is used in PAL aircrafts, some of the waterbombers in the province, and medium-sized helicopters.

She says it looks “crazy complicated,” but the instruction takes people through step-by-step, and all anyone needs is a will to learn.