Competitions showcase students' technical skills

When students competing in the SkillsUSA cabinetmaking competition walked into the carpentry shop at Delcastle Technical High School in Friday morning, they had no idea what they were going to be making.

By 2 p.m., they had each built a tabletop clock cabinet.

"If I were doing this in a class, it would take like two weeks or so," said Tom Gamber, carpentry instructor at Delcastle. "They're being asked to do it in a day."

Up and down Delaware over the past few months, students have been participating in competitions covering almost 70 kinds of technical skills.

There's the heavy-duty stuff, like diesel equipment technology, power equipment and aviation maintenance technology. There are media and communications areas, like broadcast news production, graphic communications and web design.

There are computer programming, computer technical applications and telecommunications competitions. There is photography, cosmetology, and the culinary arts.

There's even "soft skills" competitions like job interviews, prepared speech and customer service.

Some of the events are sponsored at schools, while others are hosted by companies that sponsor the events.

"Skills USA is a career and technical student association that's all about preparing kids for future careers," said Mike Fitzgerald, an education associate at the Department of Education who helps organize the events. "It's about giving them leadership opportunities; the focus is really on it being a student-run organization."

Winners of the state-level events will advance to the national SkillsUSA competitions, where they'll go head to head against the country's most skilled students.

Competition in the cabinetmaking arena was fierce. Students had only a limited number of pieces, and asking for more meant deductions, so careful planning was essential. In the end, they'd be judged on everything from how safely they used their tools to how well they used the materials to the quality of their construction.

The students worked straight through from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., taking only a brief lunch break.

"They didn't even want to take that lunch break. I had to pry some of them away," Gamber said.

Because many of the competitions are so intense, Gamber said they can be a strong reaffirmation for students and teachers of the work they've done in class.

"As an instructor, it makes me very proud to see how well they can handle what we're throwing at them," he said. "It's very rewarding to see them use what they've learned and do something that's difficult and that they can be really proud of."

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.