For the first time in at least 5 years, a Swift Current Comprehensive High School student has claimed a medal at the Skills Canada National Competition.

The 24th-annual event held in Edmonton featured six high school students from Swift Current with three of them claiming a medal.

Cindy Lowe, the skills and apprenticeship teacher at the Swift Current Comp, said she's been attending the event for half a decade and this past week's results are by far the best she's seen.

"It's pretty exciting for the whole school and all the kids and parents involved," she said. "Three of our six students came home with medals at a national level, which is an amazing feat considering they're competing against the best across Canada."

Jayden Cooke (autobody), Danika Messer (car painting), and Kaitlyn Haubrich (job interview) all claimed a bronze in their respective categories.

Spencer Linsley (workplace safety), Kierra Volk (fashion technology), and Kyton Dietz (3D game art) rounded out the Swift Current representatives.

This year's showing with three medals and six students qualifying for the national competition is the best that Lowe has been apart of and she hopes their program can build off this.

"We encourage all grade 9 students to seek out this opportunity," Lowe said. "If they can go in at grade 9 and see it at the provincial level and know what to expect, grade 10 try again, by grade 11 they know what's going on, and by grade 12 we're probably looking at a good chance for a medal."

According to Lowe, their team consists of about 40 students that travel to provincial and it's normally one of the largest teams at the Saskatchewan competition.