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WorldTeam in Leesburg

May 15th, 2013

On April 27-29, SkillsUSA had 19 of our 20 competitors in Leesburg (our Welding competitor was in Australia competing) for team training and coaching as we continue to prepare for the WorldSkills Competition to be held in Leipzig, Germany, July 2-7, 2013. The training was designed to help them get to know their fellow team members, team leaders and staff and feel confident about the entire WorldSkills event.

During our time together, we provided them with information and training about traveling abroad, representing the United States, being a leader and managing time and stress. We also conducted scenario training based on actual events/issues competitors have experienced at prior WorldSkills Competitions. Competitors were able to talk about any issues, technical training, etc., that they may have. In addition, we visited the German Embassy to get a feel for German culture and learn about the country and then had lunch at a German restaurant. During lunch, Sam Morgante, representing Congressman Jim Langevin (RI-02), joined us and addressed the team. (Representative Langevin is one of the co-chairs of the CTE Caucus.)

SkillsUSA is grateful for the WorldTeam training that is being conducted by the experts and for the tremendous support from our industry sponsors: Lowe’s, Snap-on, 3M, Festo, AWS, AWI, ASE, Carhartt, John Deere, Toyota, Lincoln, Miller, Pivot Point, Unilver Foods, WOW Web Professionals and the state associations from Fla., Mass., Mich., Wis., N.C., S.C., Ohio and Pa.

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Firing on All Cylinders at Daytona 500

March 15th, 2013

We had an amazing opportunity to talk about SkillsUSA, skilled trades and welding from February 20-24 during a week of racing at Daytona Beach, Florida. This was the SkillsUSA WorldTeam final Weld-Off  -  a competition taking 22 hours over four days – to select the final member of the WorldTeam. We had three finalists, Andrew Cardin of Massachusetts, Tanner Tipsword of Wyoming and Alex Pazkowski of Michigan. All of them did fantastic work, and Alex was named the winner on Sunday evening.

The other big winner was SkillsUSA. Thanks to an outdoor booth valued at $58,000 and donated by Larsen Motorsports, we had tens of thousands of people come by to talk, meet the students and examine their welding projects. Larsen Motorsports is owned by Chris and Elaine Larsen, and she’s one of only four female jet fuel dragster drivers in the world. She was in the booth signing autographs right along with the students when they were on break. The SkillsUSA flag was flying and the SkillsUSA and AWS logos were prominently displayed on a racing trailer in the booth. Crowds got progressively larger through the week. By Sunday, the crowds were four and five deep. See the photos at: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152585499225591.959256.22208255590&type=1.

The connection to Larsen was made through Youth Development Foundation Committee member Paul Cleveland of Miller Electric Mfg. Co., Inc., and members of the Welding contest technical committee. The American Welding Society (AWS) was the main sponsor and, on awards night had a beautiful white tent with lights and a sound system right down on Daytona Beach. It was a beautiful setting and event to announce the winner and recognize each of our contestants. Thanks go to Brandon Muehlbrandt of Lincoln Electric Co., Nick Peterson of Miller and all the other participants for pulling this whole event together. I know Alex will do a wonderful job of representing the United States in Germany this July.

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Highlights

March 15th, 2013
  • A staff member attended a meeting at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) on February 28 called by the Alcoa Foundation, who wanted to put SkillsUSA, Project Lead the Way, The Manufacturing Institute and Junior Achievement officials together to brainstorm on challenges in developing the manufacturing workforce and in combating negative public and educational perceptions of manufacturing. Later that day, staff engaged The Manufacturing Institute and PLTW officials in discussions on administration of and criteria for awarding digital manufacturing “badges.”
  • And, looking ahead a little bit, the SkillsUSA WorldTeam has an appointment to visit the German Embassy during the team’s Washington, D.C. training program, April 26-29.

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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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Finalists for WorldTeam Selected During FABTECH

December 14th, 2012

Three young welders advanced from the American Welding Society (AWS)/SkillsUSA U.S. Invitational Weld Trials held during FABTECH 2012 in Las Vegas. There were six U.S. contestants at FABTECH, two from the U.K., and one each from Canada, Australia and Russia. The three finalists competing for a spot on the SkillsUSA WorldTeam are Alex Pazlowski, Washtenaw Community College, Mich.; Andrew Cardin, Blackstone Valley Technical High School, Mass.; and, Tanner Tipsword, Eastern Wyoming College, Wyo.

The finalists will compete at the SkillsUSA WorldTeam Weld Finals in February to be held as part of Speedweek at the 2013 Daytona 500 in February. The event will be hosted by Larsen Motorsports at the Daytona International Speedway on the manufacturer’s midway outside of Turn 4, and it will be open to the public. The competition will last four days and will test multiple welding processes. The welding requirements are so precise that a number of the welds will require x-ray reviews and hydrostatic pressure tests up to 1,000 lbs per square inch. The welding finalist will be announced in February, and he will receive a $40,000 scholarship from the AWS Foundation.

Thanks for FABTECH and the upcoming Daytona trials go to a number of sponsors including the American Welding Society, Lincoln Electric Company and Miller Electric Manufacturing Co., Inc. A shot-on-site video of the awards dinner can be viewed below:

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Highlights

December 1st, 2012
  • On November 7, a staff member and I took the train to West Orange, N.J. to meet with the CEO, two group VPs, the marketing director and the business development director of Lincoln Educational Systems, the parent company of Lincoln Technical Institute among several other colleges. We were joined by Pete Carey, New Jersey state association director, three of his advisors and two of his state officers, both from the Gloucester County Institute of Technology.
  • The Alumni Coordinating Committee met at the national center for a three-day meeting, November 9-11. They reviewed their FY13 objectives, did some FY14 planning and put together plans for the national conference.
  • We recently received some good news on sponsorship. 3M Company, which was a sponsor years ago, has pledged in-kind support for the SkillsUSA Championships and pledged $36,000 to support our WorldTeam Cabinetmaking contestant. And, Interstate Battery System of America has already pledged $25,000 for next year. Interstate is pleased by the response of our chapters to the fundraising plan calling it the “best early response by any organization.”
  • Two staff members represented the national office during the recent Mid-America Conference in Columbus, Nebraska. They report it was a highly successful experience for all of the students and teachers attending and that Greg Stahr, Nebraska state association director, did a great job leading the event.
  • Welcome to our newest board member representing NASDCTEc, Scott Stump, Colorado associate provost for career and technical education. Scott is currently serving as NASDCTEc’s secretary/treasurer, and he knows student organizations having worked for National FFA and served as state FFA advisor.
  • And, finally, the board will be meeting by webinar, December 3-4. The spring board meeting will be held on March 13, hosted by Nick Mastrone at IRWIN corporate headquarters in Huntersville, N.C.

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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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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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WorldSkills Competition General Assembly

May 17th, 2012

My first day in Jeju, Korea began with a welcome dinner for official and technical delegates at the “Spirited Gardens” on Jeju Island. A beautiful setting in a bonsai garden hosted the dinner that included welcome addresses from Korean officials, and the President and CEO of World Skills International. (a couple of photos attached). A great time to network with delegates from the 39 countries attending and with World Skills board and foundation members as well as Global Industry Partners (GIP)of World Skills. Scott and I have had very good conversations with three of our own partners who also are GIPs of World Skills: Carl Peters of Lincoln Electric, David Greene of Fluke and Bob Schoener (sp) of Cisco.

WorldSkills Photo

Tim Lawrence, USA Official Delegate to WorldSkills International, Simon Bartley, President of WorldSkills International from the UK and Scott Norman, USA Technical Delegate, Pittsburg State University.

On Day Two, we attended the World Leaders Forum and participated in three discussions: (1) Skills for sustainable growth – the role of skills competitions, (2) Keeping competitors engaged beyond the competition, and (3) The world’s top skills performers – how do they do it? The third and final discussion was extremely interesting as we heard from Switzerland and Korea, the two best performing countries in World Skills Competitions over the past decade. The governmental support, training and rewards systems in these countries are all very impressive and great examples of national commitment for world competitors. Our cultural experience for the afternoon involved attending a women’s ocean diving competition and we saw the divers bring up shellfish, blowfish and octupus. We experienced Korean folk dancing performances and an ocean kayak race where our own Bob Schoener placed second overall in the race in the harbor off JeJu Island.

Day Three was the first day of General Assembly meetings. Thirty nine member countries answered roll call and we reviewed the World Skills Action Plan that is being implemented to rise to the goals of World Skills Vision 2020. We heard campaign speeches and elected a new vice-president of the Strategy Committee and heard updates on the state of World Skills International from both President Simon Bartley and CEO David Hoey. We approved SanPalo Brazil as the site for the 2015 World Skills Competition and heard a proposal from the official delegate from the United Arab Emerates for hosting the event in 2017. We also heard presentations and voted to approve the membership of three new countries to join World Skills International. Russia, Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago were all three approved as new members, bringing the total number of countries involved to 61. We broke into working groups for the entire afternoon to generate ideas on how World Skills should go about implementation of the Action Plan.

We have two more days of General Assembly meetings and lots more business to address, including introduction of new competitions and a revisit of Vision 2020 to secure member ideas in the process. More to follow as we close out the assembly on Saturday night.

Here are a few photos from our time here:

WorldSkills Photo

WorldSkills Photo

WorldSkills Photo

WorldSkills Photo

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Highlights

April 15th, 2012
  • SkillsUSA was invited to help prepare hearings for a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on April 17. The hearing will be about the skills gap and how to address it. Our staff met with committee staff on Monday, April 2, to discuss the overall agenda, suggest additional witnesses from among our partners and what SkillsUSA is doing that can add to the hearings.
  • On the legislative front, staff attended the National Coordinating Council meeting for the student organizations, and according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education, Perkins is not likely to be folded in with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and reauthorization of Perkins is more likely in 2015 than next year. In a related development, we also understand that Perkins funds are protected from being folded into a workforce investment fund as originally proposed. NASCTEc worked for the change and reports that Perkins is the only program that cannot be consolidated into the unified workforce plan. And, on March 30, Representative Jim Langevin, co-chair of the bipartisan CTE Caucus presented the 2012 SkillsUSA Rhode Island Outstanding Advisor of the Year award in Cranston. That‘s great visibility for SkillsUSA.
  • On March 27, we had a webinar for state association directors on the expanded curriculum and changes to the officer training seminars held during conference, formerly called State Officer 101/201 and advisor training, but now called Leverage (state officers), Activate (chapter leaders) and Engage (advisor training). Seventeen directors joined the webinar and six more have asked for a reprise. Reaction was positive. There have also been six webinars on the Skill Connect Assessments focusing on general administration of the tests and on building student success with the assessments. And, staff reports that four states are using the assessments as part of their state competitions.
  • We have 46 applications in for the SkillsUSA WorldTeam. The interview and selection process will begin soon. We also got the good news that Festo will sponsor our 2013 Mechatronics Team.
  • Staff reports that the March 23 Chapter Management Institute held here at the national center was attended by 22 teachers from Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
  • And, finally, the succession plan approved by the board last year has been reviewed by a local consultant sent our way by Tim Zilke of ASE. The consultant commended the plan overall and had some suggestions that we’ll implement soon.

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