TALOYOAK/SPENCE BAY - A team of young film and production students will travel from Nunavut to Alberta this week to document the WorldSkills competition in Calgary.

Katherine Lyall and her partner Anthony Paniloo from Netsilik School in Taloyoak won the silver medal for video production at the Skills Canada competition in Prince Edward Island last May. Lyall is now part of a team that will document the WorldSkills Competition in Calgary - photo courtesy of Claude Pike

Instructor Claude Pike at Netsilik School said 15-year-old Katherine Lyall and her partner, Anthony Paniloo, participated in the Skills Canada competition in Prince Edward Island last May.

"Last year, we had one student from here who went to Prince Edward Island and won the gold in graphic design," he said. "Our team, which Kathy is a part of, won the silver in video production."

Their project theme was "skills for life" and showed images of elders using traditional skills, Pike said.

Though the pair didn't win, Lyall and Paniloo impressed the judges, Pike said.

Pike said competition organizers invited Lyall and other film and production students from across Nunavut to this year's competition to film and produce a DVD of the events.

"They invited her along with the gold medallists and another group to be a part of the video production team as it documents the WorldSkills Competition in Calgary," he said.

Pike said the video will be edited in Taloyoak and will be used as an educational video to show students throughout Nunavut what the WorldSkills Competition is like.

"They are making a video for those not able to attend to see the events," he said. "The idea is to create an educational piece."

Pike said the competition has three levels.

"Every year we have a regional competition held in Iqaluit where all the schools in Nunavut compete against each other," he said. "Each province in the country has their provincial competition, then the winner from each category goes to the Skills Canada competition."

The winners then go on to the WorldSkills Competition, which is held in a different country every two years. This year's competition in Calgary will showcase more than 900 competitors from around the world who will compete in 45 different skills categories, according to the WorldSkills website.

Pike said a team of 15 students from Nunavut will also attend the event to observe the competition.

"They have invited the groups from Nunavut to attend the competition just to observe what the competition is like so we can see what the standards are for our competitors," he said.

Lyall said she is definitely excited about attending and filming the event.

"I'm looking forward to seeing all the different skills and learning how to use more modern equipment," she said. "Last year we were using little DVD cameras and this year our teacher ordered bigger cameras so I want to learn how to use them."

She said she hopes the DVD she is helping to produce will encourage other Nunavummiut "to learn how skills can be useful for the future and they could know all the different skills and hopefully they'll want to learn them, too."

The group will be in Calgary until Sept. 8.