Students engaged in more than 25 skills and leadership competitions Monday in areas such as first aid and CPR, carpentry, culinary arts, nurse assisting, job interviewing, advertising design and the day's largest competition — automotive service technology.
"The first place winners here in the skills areas, really all of the contests here today, go on to Kansas City to the National Conference Competition in June," said Harlan Arneson, campus coordinator.
 Mike Mangino, Grand Forks, and Colin Claeys, Oakes, work to finalize their improvements to a set of drum brakes in the automotive service technology competition at NDSCS Monday. Mangino and Claeys are two of 320 North Dakota high school and post secondary students who competed in the Skills USA State Conference Competition held on the Wildcat campus. photo by Erin Hevern Advertisement |
"The big thing for me is we have 200 judges that come from industry to judge this contest," Arneson said. "It's pretty large, in auto [technology] alone there's 40-some judges. They're all tradesmen that are out there in different jobs and dealerships that are donating their time to do the judging."
SkillsUSA is a national organization working to ensure the United States develops a skills work force, serving more than 300,000 students and instructors annually. The competition is held at NDSCS every other two years.
"The quality educational experiences in this competition helps students develop their vocational skills and recognizes outstanding achievement," said NDSCS President Dr. John Richman. "We're privileged to play a role in this."
Arneson called the competition a tool for the students to evaluate what they are learning, for instructors to assess how accurately they're covering materials in their curriculum and also for the industry.
"If a student really wants to do well in any of these competitions they're going to put extra effort into their reading of materials or the practicing of doing different tasks so they can do well," Arneson said. "It is a motivator, we hope for the students and also the instructors to improve their programs to meet the standards set by the industries."
The students, instructors and judges will participate in an awards ceremony Tuesday at the NDSCS Stern Cultural Center.
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