After 15 years, a competition that brought thousands of high school students to Waterloo Region is leaving the area.
Starting in 2017, the Ontario Technological Skills Competition – also known as Skills Ontario – will be moved from RIM Park to the Toronto Congress Centre.
In an email to CTV Kitchener, competition spokesperson Anne Ramsay said the event had “simply run out of room” in Waterloo.
“The majority of the contests, challenges, and conferences at the OTSC fill up quickly and are waitlisted – often within hours of registration opening,” she said.
According to a document provided by Skills Ontario, the Toronto facility will provide room for 2,400 students to take part in the competition – 300 more than are currently able to do so.
Many events currently held in outdoor tents will also be able to be moved indoors, while offsite events will be able to take place at the same venue as the main competition.
Organizers also point to a more centralized location, the possibility of greater media attention, and better parking as reasons for the move.
Skills Ontario pits high school students against each other in more than 60 different categories, including automotive repair, carpentry and culinary arts.
Winners move on to a national competition.
Before moving to Waterloo in 2002, the event was held at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.
