Agincourt Collegiate Team Wins Skills Competition

Two automotive technician students from Agincourt Collegiate in Scarborough beat out 16 other Toronto-area high school teams to win a high-octane skills competition at the Canadian International AutoShow on Feb. 14.

Hansen Cao and Huzaifa Misbah performed a number of timed technical tasks and worked on a 2013 Volkswagen Jetta that had been rigged with a no-start condition by automotive instructors from Centennial College. The Toronto college operates Canada’s largest transportation technology training centre.

By finishing first, the pair will be representing Canada at the National Automotive Technology Competition in New York City in April. In addition to the all-expenses-paid trip, Cao and Misbah received a trophy and equipment from sponsors.

North York’s Northview Heights Secondary School finished second, thanks to the efforts of students Tomi Bankole and Aleksey Romanenkov, while Sean Smyth and Cameron Wosik from Markham’s St. Brother André Catholic High School earned third place. The automotive labs of all three schools will receive a vehicle from General Motors Canada for training purposes.

In addition, teacher Yonas Lijiam of Philip Popock Secondary School in Mississauga earned the second annual Gerd Reisenecker Memorial Teacher of the Year Award, named for the former Centennial professor and TADA member.

Canadian students have been a formidable force in New York: A team from Central Technical School beat all of the U.S. teams and collected prizes worth $250,000 in 2008. A Northview Heights Secondary School team placed second in 2009.

The 14th annual Toronto Automotive Technology Competition received outstanding support from the industry. Sponsors include: Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA), the Canadian International AutoShow, Volkswagen Canada, General Motors Canada, Snap-On/Sun Tools, Consulab, Canadian Tire, Toromont, Nelson Education, Pearson Education, Goodheart-Willcox, TecMate and Centennial College.