Leah Lucyshyn won gold at the 2022 Skills Canada National Competition in Vancouver, representing Team Saskatchewan. (Submitted photo/Leah Lucyshyn)

By Ben Tompkins

Team Canada

Local woman to compete at 2022 WorldSkills competition in Switzerland

Aug 26, 2022 | 5:52 PM

After adding a national title to her name, Leah Lucyshyn will now be heading to the 2022 WorldSkills competition this October in Switzerland.

Although the Humboldt-born, 23-year-old no longer resides in her hometown, as she now lives in Swift Current, she will still be representing Humboldt, Sask. and the entire country.

After winning gold in the Graphic Design Technology competition and the RBC Best of Region award for Saskatchewan at the 2022 Skills Canada National Competition (SCNC), she has booked her ticket to the highest level possible with the international skills competition.

Lucyshyn told northeastNOW after being involved in post-secondary competitions for the past four years, this was always where she saw herself ending up.

“It has always been my goal to get to a world level and be able to compete in person… When you get everyone together and you can watch them, the energy for those competitors, it’s totally different. It’s more about the experience than anything, this is where I’ve wanted to get to, just go somewhere and compete internationally.”

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And it’s been a bit of a windy road for her to get here. In 2020 no post-secondary competitions took place due to the pandemic, while in 2021 competitions were virtual.

These complications did not stop her from achieving great success, however, as she competed in the provincial and national competitions and taking home gold in both, as well as competing for Team Canada in the WorldSkills America virtual competition and taking home silver and Best of the Nation for Canada.

Despite these accomplishments and the preparation and skills they gave her, it just left her itching for the ultimate prize.

Her motivation was also amplified as this represented her final chance, due to age eligibility.

“The 2021 one was exciting when I found out I placed first but the 2022 one was like, wow… I was in denial, I thought I could have won and that there was a good chance just because of my track record, but you don’t really know for sure until they announce your name. I was losing it.”

With this set to represent her final post-secondary Skills competition, Lucyshyn added she was a bit sad to see it end, however, all she can think about is doing her best at the Worlds and ending on a high note.

And with her post skills competition career edging closer every second, she begins to think about her life after and what she might do with it.

While nothing is yet set in stone, she did briefly talk about what she thought ‘might be something cool to do.’

“On the skills side of things, I am hoping to get involved with some of the high schools in the province. In the high school level, there’s not really a good feeder system, so I’m hoping to get skills involved with the high school system. Maybe training some kids up and getting them excited about career possibilities,” she said.

“There’s also a lot of different creative things I would really love to start doing and pursue…I feel like I couldn’t live without being creative, so maybe I’d like to get into illustration, I want to make cool graphic design stuff.”

The Graphic Design Technology, WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition takes place in Aarau, Switzerland on October 12–15.

The goal of Skills Canada and WorldSkills is to engage youth and promote all of the exciting and lucrative careers that are available to them in the skilled trades and technologies.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8