CTE students compete at Skills USA regional
Career and technical education students from around western Arizona flocked to Arizona Western College on Friday for the Skills USA regional competition.
Skills USA is a national nonprofit that describes itself as “a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce.”
Friday’s event saw students from 40 different areas of study, including welding, carpentry, cooking and photography, testing their chops.
In a parking lot near AWC’s art building, teachers Lawrence Casaus, from San Luis High School, and Rudy Olvera watched their carpentry students go headto-head building portions of a wall.
“We’re outside, it’s an on-thejob experience,” said Olvera, who teaches carpentry at Mojave High School and came down all the way from Bullhead City near Nevada for today’s event. “They’re on their own, they’re reading plans, they’re building, so it’s more like employability skills than anything, you know.
“We teach them how to swing a hammer on Day One. It’s more about being on their own and doing their thing without our instruction, or not under our roof in our shops.”
Casaus said the teachers are mostly there to provide a watchful eye for safety purposes. During the competition, they aren’t allowed to give advice or pointers to students.
“It gets them out here in the element,” said Casaus. “They’re out here on an asphalt parking lot, just like the real-world situation, although it’s a modified blueprint.”
Also around AWC’s campus were career and technical education “ambassadors” and “leaders,” who help other students and can talk with and inform spectators about the program.
One of these leaders, Jasmine Perez, takes law and public safety classes and wants to either be an attorney or an FBI agent after she finishes school.
She said that events like Friday’s help sharpen students’ skills “in every aspect.”
“This just prepares them (students) for whatever they want to take,” she said. “Like in law enforcement, they’re doing patrol techniques right now. And patrol techniques are used as a police officer, so if they end up wanting to pursue a career as a police officer, it helps them because they already have some knowledge as to what their career field is.”
Friday’s gold-medal winners included Kofa High School’s Sebastian Sanchez in welding, San Luis High School’s Leonardo Flores in photography, Kofa High School’s Oscar Garcia in carpentry and Cibola High School’s Adriana Carillo in crime scene investigation.
Arizona’s Skills USA championship, which takes place April 3-4 at the Pheonix Convention Center, is the next time career and technical education students will get the chance to compete.