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WorldTeam Debriefing

January 15th, 2013

We held a WorldTeam conference call on December 19th including the technical experts, competitors and some state association directors. The experts and competitors who attended WorldSkills Americas in Brazil gave overviews of what they experienced. The key take away was that the competition was intense and that this is actually “a very big deal.” Sharing their insights with those experts and competitors who could not attend will help set the stage for the rest of the training and meetings the team will be undergoing.

We also discussed what materials and other things experts and competitors will need. We will do all that we can to accommodate their needs based on budget. And, we talked about getting the whole WorldTeam to the national office for additional training and visits to D.C. this coming spring. A decision will be made in February pending budget.

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Winning WorldTeam Returns from Brazil

December 1st, 2012

SkillsUSA WorldTeamThe 11 members of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam and 12 technical experts returned on November 19 from a victorious showing in São Paulo during the WorldSkills Americas competitions from November 11 – 18. There were 23 other countries participating in the competitions. I’m proud to announce that seven members of the team won medals in seven of the 10 competitions SkillsUSA entered. The winners are:

  • Automobile Technology — Kieron Kohlmann, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Mich. — Gold and “Best in Nation”
  • Cabinetmaking — Daniel Berrios, Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, Pa. — Gold
  • Autobody Repair — George Mason, Lexington Technology Center, Lexington, S.C. — Gold
  • Plumbing and Heating — Nicholas Michalenko, Smith Vocational, Northampton, Mass. — Silver
  • CNC Milling — Joshua Bedell, Pinellas Technical Education Center, Clearwater, Fla. — Silver
  • CNC Turning — Ronald Olkowski, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Mich. — Bronze
  • Cooking — Matthew Lorman, North Point High School, Waldorf, Md. — Bronze

Contestants in Graphic Design Technology, Web Design and the Mechatronics team did not place but they and everyone involved now have the experience of international competition and that’s all to the good. We’ll have a debriefing soon, so I’ll have more details next time.

News releases on all of the members of WorldTeam — including WorldSkills Americas information — will be sent to hometown and state newspapers, trade publications and posted online last week. To see photos of the WorldTeam in Brazil, please visit: www.skillsusa.org/compete/worldskillsamerica.shtml#results

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SkillsUSA WorldTeam Competes in Brazil

November 15th, 2012
SkillsUSA WorldTeam

The SkillsUSA WorldTeam prior to departing for Brazil.

Eleven members of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam are currently in São Paulo, Brazil to participate in the WorldSkills Americas competition to compete with countries from North and South America. This competition is a great “warm up ” for the WorldSkills Competition to be held in Leipzig, Germany, in July 2013. WorldSkills Americas, in cooperation with its member countries, organizes a competition every two years focused on vocational training. The first competition was held in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro.

WorldSkills Americas (WSA) is a non-governmental not-for-profit organization. Its objective is to provide means for vocational education quality improvement in North America, Central America and Caribbean and South America countries, involving governments, industries, commerce and vocational education and training organizations and/or institutions. The WorldSkills Americas operates in conjunction with the WorldSkills International.

Members of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam who are competing at the WorldSkills Americas competition are:

Autobody Repair – George Mason, Lexington Technology Center, Lexington, S.C.
Automobile Technology – Kieron Kohlmann, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Mich.
CNC Turning – Ronald Olkowski, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Mich.
CNC Milling – Joshua Bedell, Pinellas Technical Education Center, Clearwater, Fla.
Cabinetmaking – Daniel Berrios, Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, Pa.
Cooking – Matthew Lorman, North Point High School, Waldorf, Md.
Graphic Design Technology – Sarah Parker, Ronald Reagan High School, Pfafftown, N.C.
Mechatronics – Antony Costantini, The Technology Center, Fremont, Ohio
Mechatronics – Jarrod Nichols, The Technology Center, Fremont, Ohio
Plumbing and Heating – Nicholas Michalenko, Smith Vocational, Northampton, Mass.
Web Design – Michael Angel, Essex High School/Center for Technology, Essex, Essex Junction, Vt.

Twelve of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam technical experts are also participating.

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Highlights

November 1st, 2012
  • On October 1-3, our Education, Training and Assessments department staff were engaged in intense training with Quantum Learning’s nationally respected trainer Mark Reardon. Our training staff learned the latest training and motivational techniques; and will be incorporating these into our training seminars and workshops for students and advisors. The training included focus on effective meetings, new teacher training and the most current training trends and techniques. Staff tells me they were excited about the training and even more excited about implementing what they learned with our stakeholders.
  • As a follow up to the Champion of the Year Dinner and great connections from YDF member Dave Camden of Toyota, we are working with Interstate Batteries to introduce a national fundraising campaign for our local chapters. In our discussions with local advisors and student leaders, fundraising is a critical component of local involvement in SkillsUSA. Chapters will have the opportunity to sell Interstate alkaline batteries and keep approximately 50 percent of all sales.
  • I’m also pleased to announce that earlier last month, Interstate Batteries announced a partnership with SkillsUSA. Starting this year, participating SkillsUSA student chapters will be able to sell a wide variety of Interstate Batteries products from AAA, AA, C, D and 9V batteries to flashlights and organizers with testers. And, for each Interstate Batteries product sold, SkillsUSA student chapters will receive 50 percent of the sale price.
  • Finally, staff reports that we are almost ready to travel to Brazil with 11 of our finest students to compete in WorldSkills Americas in November. Our final count of participants is complete, and we are in the last days of planning for the event.

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Highlights

October 15th, 2012
  • The national office has been converting its email system to Microsoft Outlook the past few weeks with a new IT supplier. As anyone who has ever been through a similar undertaking knows, where there’s lots of data migration not all data migrates to where it’s supposed to be.
  • Staff reports that our 12 contestants going to WorldSkills Americas in November have their plane tickets. There’s just that little matter of making sure everyone has visas.

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Highlights

September 30th, 2012
  • On September 11, Don Hermanek and Rita Figi of IAA (Insurance Auto Auctions) came by the national office to discuss the launch of a partnership to reach out to support SkillsUSA state associations and chapters and to offer training and employment opportunities to SkillsUSA students from many training program areas. They expressed particular interest in students competing in the leadership contests. They started the meeting with the presentation of a $25,000 check. We are to get back together in early October to further develop our strategy.
  • Along similar lines, staff and I met on September 13 with NCCER (National Center for Construction Education and Research). They’re predicting an uptick in construction hiring and so they’re looking for ways to hire our construction graduates.
  • Thanks to Bill Maddox and Wanzel Jessie of YDF member N.E.W., we were able to take the Mega Prize winner John Lee and his wife, Samantha, to the owner’s box at a Washington Nationals baseball game September 7th and then I took them on a Segue tour of the Washington monuments on the 8th. Both John and Samantha are big baseball fans so they were just over the moon about the prize. John teaches diesel equipment technology at Tennessee Technology Center in Elizabethton. He’s also a state certified trainer, he’s had national contestants, has a national officer this year and he was a Virginia state officer many years ago.
  • And, finally, the WorldTeam had its first webinar on August 3. Most of the contestants, experts, management team and a few state association directors participated. It was an orientation for the team and to check on how we’re doing on communications and training. We met with state association directors Karen Ward and Mike Cowles on September 10 to discuss several topics including state director certification, new training structures and registration procedures and the hotel lottery at national conference among others. The staff values their input. Past national officer, national staff member and all-around good friend to SkillsUSA, Bill Prince and his wife Patty came by to visit with the national staff on September 12. Bill addressed the staff meeting on the early history of SkillsUSA and exciting moments he recalled such as the appearance of President Reagan at our national conference.

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Highlights

September 15th, 2012
  • A big thank you to our state association directors who attended the Professional Development and Training Conference in Rapid City, S.D. Here are just a few more highlights from the conference. Tiffany Sanderson, team leader, Perkins Career and Technical Education in South Dakota – equivalent to the state CTE director – was a featured speaker during the opening dinner. The states held regional meetings before the business meeting and all ran very well. Mark Williams, SkillsUSA’s chief IT consultant, did an outstanding job of demonstrating the conference management system. At least half of the directors attending participated, and Mark did a separate training for new state directors. The Mount Rushmore nighttime lighting ceremony was wonderfully patriotic. Jen Polz, state association director from Minnesota is the new executive committee chair-elect and all of the executive committee did a phenomenal job of running the conference.
  • On August 23, I flew to Chicago to meet with the CEO and executive staff of IAA (Insurance Auto Auctions) and the CEO and president of ADESA (a leading provider of vehicle remarketing services). Board member, Russ Hoffbauer, made the introduction by inviting the president and vice president of IAA to the conference last June. Needless to say, they were impressed by what they saw. During our meeting, Kaila O’Farrell, national high school vice president, talked about the value of SkillsUSA to students and then Russ Hoffbauer talked about why State Farm is involved in SkillsUSA. I’d say they were both persuasive because both organizations signed up to be SkillsUSA official sponsors effective this year. Executives from each organization met with us in Leesburg on September 11. Thanks go to Russ Hoffbauer for his support.
  • We have 311 people registered to attend the Washington Leadership Training Institute (WLTI) and it starts tomorrow. They’ll be representing 27 states and Puerto Rico and 31 state associations. I believe this is the largest WLTI in history. All of the national officers will be attending.
  • Preparations for the Champion of the Year dinner are reaching a feverish pace. An announcement news release went out on September 6, and Snap-on has really stepped up efforts to get coverage during a news conference scheduled at the National Press Club. Staff is following up on the invitations to the administration and Congress. We’ve had good sponsorship responses from the Youth Development Foundation and members of the board, and we’re looking forward to having 100 students and teachers from WLTI join us for the dinner.
  • We’re getting ready to send 13 students and 12 technical delegates from the 2013 SkillsUSA WorldTeam to Brazil for the WorldSkills Americas in mid-November 2012. We sent two contestants to the 2010 WorldSkills Americas competition and found it was a great way to prepare the contestants for international competition and – even more important – to help prepare the technical experts. Thank you to the state associations who are stepping up to support these contestants in their quest for excellence on the world level.

That’s it for now. Until next time, thank you for all you do for the great students and teachers we serve.

 

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WorldSkills General Assembly Meeting

June 15th, 2012

On May 13-20, Scott Norman and I were in Jeju, Korea for the WorldSkills General Assembly meeting. Approximately 150 delegates from member nations attended the meeting. I’d say as the new official delegate, and Scott as the new official technical delegate, both Scott and I learned a lot about the operations and vision of the WorldSkills organization. We also made some good industry contacts.

One of the business items was the final report on WorldSkills London 2011. There were 1,000 contestants (people at the meeting couldn’t believe that we’ll have 5,900 contestants at the upcoming Championships) and, 200,000 people attended. Many of the attendees were school children bused in or visited by national teams at their schools. The event cost about $88 million. The British government picked up half of that cost. The U.S. hosted the WorldSkills Competition in 1981. When asked if we’d do it again, I looked at those costs and said: “Not any time soon.” A clear disappointment for the WorldSkills in London was that despite some of the royal family and the prime minister attending, the event didn’t receive coverage from the BBC.

We also heard some interesting presentations from Korea and Switzerland on what it takes to be a winning team at the WSC. Korean contestants are already workers by the time they compete. In fact, Korean contestants train for 10 hours a day for three years prior to the competition. And, there are some incentives. Korean medalists are exempt from compulsory military service, gold medalists are guaranteed lifetime employment at Samsung, and the medalists earn cash rewards and receive a ticker-tape parade upon their return to Korea. Swiss contestants are all in apprenticeships, and they have full government support for their training. All countries – except the United States – have federal support. The focus of every nation except the United States, is entirely on the competition.

Germany presented the logistics, venue and the travel package costs for the Leipzig, Germany 2013 WorldSkills Competition. The theme will be “Discover.” Sri Lanka, Russia and Trinidad/Tobago have all joined WorldSkills taking the number of member countries to 61. We also learned that the fee for each participating country will increase by three percent over the previous year.

Due to economic difficulties in Europe, the venue for the 2015 WSC has been moved from Madrid, Spain to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The good news, from a competition standpoint, is that SkillsUSA will be sending select contestants from our WorldTeam to the same venue for Skills Americas this November.

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World Medalists Return from Brazil

April 1st, 2010

We received word on March 15 that Daniel Lehmkuhl of San Luis Obispo, California earned a silver medal in automotive service technology and Chase Trayal of Meridian, Mississippi earned a silver medal in cabinetmaking following the four-day WorldSkills Americas Competition in Rio de Janeiro. News releases went out last week. The entire team has returned safely. The U.S. was the only nation in North America to send student contestants. Canada and Mexico sent observers as we did to test the waters before sending the WorldTeam to London in 2011. Additional information on the WorldSkills Americas Competition and our U.S. delegation may be found at www.skillsusa.org/compete/worldskillsamerica.shtml. By the way, I’ve been told that our students were treated like “rock stars” throughout the competition. That’s nice to hear.

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SkillsUSA Competes in WorldSkills Americas

March 15th, 2010

The first ever WorldSkills Americas competition is being conducted in Rio de Janeiro, March 10-13 in conjunction with the Brazil national competitions. The National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) in Brazil is hosting.

The Participants from 12 countries have entered competitions in 20+ trade areas. Twenty-eight countries have sent trade experts and Technical and Official delegates to observe and assist with the management of the competitions.

The SkillsUSA WorldTeam consists of five technical experts supporting the two students competing in Automotive Service Technology and Cabinetmaking. Daniel Lehmkuhl, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, Calif. is competing in Automotive Technology. Chase Trayal, Meridian Community College, Meridian, Miss. is competing in Cabinetmaking. Both are medalists from the 2009 SkillsUSA Championships. SkillsUSA’s Official Delegate and Technical Delegate to WorldSkills International are also attending, as is the WorldTeam’s Team Leader.

The technical experts are as follows:

  • Kelly Caudle, Stanly Community College; – IT/PC Networking
  • Ray Connolly, DRS Technologies – Welding
  • Pat Klarecki, Ferris State University – Graphic Design and Printing
  • Scott Norman, Pittsburg State University – Automotive Technology
  • Rob Tobias, Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology – Cabinetmaking

We believe we can improve our performance at the next WorldSkills competition in London in October 2011 due to our students and technical experts participating in WorldSkills Americas. The competition mirrors the WorldSkills Competition and runs four days, the same schedule the students will face in London.

We have received notification that our two competitors both earned silver medals in their respective competitions. Congratulations Chase and Daniel!

SkillsUSA's WorldTeam Silver Medalists

Chase Trayal and Daniel Lehmkuhl show off their silver medals.

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