Five SAIT students compete at WorldSkills in Shanghai this week

Five SAIT students are heading to Shanghai this week to compete at WorldSkills 2026, which runs September 22 to 27. It's the largest contingent SAIT has sent since Calgary hosted the competition in 2009, and more than any other Canadian educational institution.

The competitors are Tyler Gunther in industrial mechanics, Tate McGarry in cabinetmaking, Jacob McClelland in CNC milling, Ben Jamison in aircraft maintenance, and Carter Kokot in automobile technology. They'll face more than 1,400 competitors from over 70 countries and regions.

McGarry trained across Calgary, Lethbridge, Germany and Taiwan for a format where the project stays hidden until an hour before the competition starts. "It's a blind project for us, so I have no idea what I'm building until about an hour beforehand," he said. "It's also pretty stressful, so I'm kind of excited for the finish of it, but hopefully I can get it all together and finish strong."

McClelland discovered machining by accident—a lathe sitting unused in his high school mechanics classroom. He taught himself on it, making chess pawns, rings and small crowns. His teacher suggested he pursue the trade, and now he works full-time while training mostly on weekends. "If I never knew what machining was in the first place, I would have never actually gained an interest in it," he said.

Gunther was recruited by coach Jason Parnell during his first year as an apprentice. After winning provincials and nationals, he's now representing Team Canada on the world stage.