Career & Technical Center Students Reap Awards in Kansas City
By Shelby Young
syoung@cnpapers.com 348-4806
A total of 12 students from Putnam Career & Technical Center recently returned from the national SkillsUSA Championships in Kansas City, Mo., this year to bring home several awards.
They were among 74 West Virginia career and technical students who captured the state titles in a variety of competitions earlier this year to qualify for competition at SkillsUSA’s 43rd National Leadership and Skills Conference.
The program aids high school and postsecondary students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations. It serves more than 280,000 students and instructors annually through 13,000 school chapters in 54 state and territorial associations.
A space the size of 16 football fields in Bartle Hall and other area facilities in Kansas City provided the setting for 87 hands-on skill and leadership competitions including advertising design, architectural drafting, carpentry, computer maintenance, culinary arts and job interview, among others.
Putnam County’s Dustin Beckett received the fourth-place national award in Carpentry-Post-Secondary.
In the Plumbing competition for post-secondary students, fifth place nationally went to Jonathan Edwards.
A competition is also held to determine the best team to display teamwork and professional presentation skills in performing the opening and closing SkillsUSA ceremonies.
The seventh-place award nationally was given to the Putnam high school team, composed of Kendra Cunningham, Holly Miller, Kayla Hammonds, Ashley Nichols, Tracie Grady, Alisha Donahew and Jessica Brewer.
They were judged on their teamwork and coordinated movement, memorization and recitation in unison, grooming and personal hygiene, pronunciation, good platform deportment and appearance, as well as variances of voice pitch, tone, tempo and volume.
In the Power Equipment Technology-P.S. category, Chris Glen earned the 10th-place award.
Joseph Compton came in at 17th place in the Heating, Venting and Air Conditioning-P.S. competition.
Noah Stevens came in at 30th place in Architectural Drafting- Secondary.
Putnam Career & Technical Center Principal Robert Manley termed the results “great for one Career and Technical Center in West Virginia. Hats off to our instructors.”
SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry representatives working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce.
It is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations.
It was formerly known as VICA (Vocational Industrial Clubs of America).
SkillsUSA is an applied method of instruction for preparing America’s high-performance workers in public career and technical programs.
It provides quality education experiences for students in leadership, teamwork, citizenship and character development. The program is designed to build and reinforce self-confidence, work attitudes and communications skills. It emphasizes total quality at work: high ethical standards, superior work skills, lifelong education and pride in the dignity of work, as well as promoting understanding of the free-enterprise system and involvement in community service.
Across the country, approximately 14,000 teachers and school administrators serve as professional SkillsUSA members and instructors.
More than 1,000 business, industry and labor sponsors actively support SkillsUSA at the national level through financial aid, in- kind contributions and involvement of their people in SkillsUSA activities. Many more work directly with state associations and local chapters.
These programs also help to establish industry standards for job skill training in the lab and classroom, and promote community service.
At the state level, West Virginia students competed for more than $200,000 in scholarships and $30,000 in prizes for capturing first, second and third place.
SkillsUSA is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and has been cited as a successful model of an employer-driven youth development training program by the U.S. Department of Labor.
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