Plenty of students from around the Foothills took to Skills to test their mettle in a variety of professions Wednesday, May 8, and Thursday, May 9.

Tim Isaac, judge and provincial technical committee member for Skills Canada says it's not just kids within the Foothills that take advantage of the program.

"All together there's approximately seven hundred students that compete at provincials, that includes secondary and post secondary."

Aidan Rhoads from the Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks won gold in Cabinet Making and will move onto Nationals later this month.

Isaac says everyone should give Skills a try.

"Great thing for kids to take part in, even just for the experience, never mind whether they win or not. Every student I've ever talked to that's gone up there has been really excited and happy that they had a chance to participate in that."

One of the gold medalists from the Foothills area was Julie Hayward who competed in Graphic Design.

Isaac added there are plenty of trades that kids can compete in.

"I believe there's forty-seven actual trade areas that people can compete in depending if they're secondary or post secondary."

Anna Koehler from High River competed in baking and took home gold, she too is off to Halifax later this month to compete in Nationals.