Skills Nunavut set up shop in Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit on April 29 for the Territorial Skills Competition.
“We want to THANK YOU to everyone that came out … Thank you donors, sponsors, volunteers and community members!” read the statement from Skills Nunavut on the Iqaluit Public Services Announcement. “We hope you won something in our Loonie/Toonie [draw], completed a Try-a-Trade Apprentice book, or you just had fun watching our students compete.
“Skills Nunavut competitors will prepare in their respective trades [for] the Skills Canada National Competition in May.”
Nunavut News spoke with Taylor Lindell, an avid member of the baking club in Grade 9 at Inuksuk High School while she was in the process of her hour-long cake-making competition.
“I just wanted to be a part of this,” said Lindell, when asked why she started baking with the club, of which she is the only member left from 10.
“I started baking when I was three.”
Lindell lists a few of the things she’s learned to make, which she and her family usually enjoy afterwards, such as sponge cake, swish cake, buttercream, shoux, pastry cream, and risotto.
Lindell bakes usually on Sundays under the guidance of Elaine Kanayuk-Gabriel, herself a graduate of the school and a former competitor in the territorial and national skills competition.
Kanayuk-Gabriel enjoys supervising the students as she has “had the experience of being in the club. We leave it open [to those who wish to pursue a culinary career and those who just want to learn]. We’ve had a few people go on to do it professionally.”
The national competition will take place in Quebec City from May 30 to 31.
