SkillsUSA...Really?

Date 08-22-2007 16:05

Is the educational institution really nieve enough not to see SkillUSA for what it really is. I provide the following example to generate some discussion....

In KC at Nationals I took my three welders up the parking ramp overlooking the plaza. As we looked down, I asked them to count all of the red blazers in the plaza. We counted over 200. My student asked, why were so many students wearing those coats? They were required as part of their competition.

"How did they pay for those coats?" Fundraising activities.

As an eucator, we all know money is tight.

Has anyone asked how much a blazer cost? Let's pick a low figure $45.00.

200 x 45 = $9,000.00

$9,000 was generated by students who bought the coats because they were required by SkillUSA to participate in a competition.

Follow the money...where did it go? Those of you involved know nothing with SkillsUSA is free. They charge for everything. Even the book that gives them an idea of how to prepare for their compeition is not cheap, and we spent $40.00 for each registration this year when all of the consumables for the event were donated. Sounds fishy to me.

So here's the question? Secondary schools have no money and post-secondary raises the rates every time they need more...so as educators, why are we comfortable having our students generate funds (funds we could desparately use in our classrooms) to give to SkillsUSA because they require certain uniforms for their competitions.

Doesn't anybody see a problem with this?

Is the AWS not capable of conducting their own national competition that doesn't cost $650.00 to attend (what we spent on room and board and registration for last year's event here in Iowa).

I refuse to compete again...(I've had three state champs) so this is not sour grapes. I refuse to pay another organization to host a welding competition with money I should be giving to the AWS.

Sure everybody thinks SkillsUSA is great and the national events are great...but does anyone look beyond the glamour and think about how much money was raised nationally to take part in SkillsUSA? Money that went into somebodies pocket.

It is actually the most brilliant business strategy I have ever seen. Convince educators and students to fundraise from their communities and give the money to SkillsUSA, all the while brainwashing them into thinking your organization is there for them. SkillsUSA is a business and the AWS made a terrible decision by joining forces.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 08-22-2007 21:03

Rather than quit why not put your (probably valid) criticisim to good use and become a Skills USA bigwig...

Put the heat on them from the inside and make change.

I know lots of educators and students who value skills USA

Suggesting the AWS could do anything less expensively is a hoot! Think long and hard before giving them any more authority than they already have. It's almost like suggesting the government could spend our health care dollars more effectively than those greedy Hospitals and drug corperations....

I think your criticisims should be answered... It would be interesting to see somebody from inside Skills USA offer a response.

By pmedicann (*)

Date 08-22-2007 22:30

This was meant to start the discussion which might (I doubt it) start the wheels of change. At least get people asking questions. Hopefully so. I know many educators swear by SkillsUSA; I just don't get it. I am a welding educator with a business mind and see things differently than many other educators. Some would consider this a flaw. I don't.

I have already started my own wheels of change with a competition I plan to sponsor this year. Won't have the fan fair, but the competition will be great and the dollars will stay in my shop.

By welderwv (*)

Date 08-24-2007 12:08

I agree with you. I just left the high school level to teach welding at a college so hopefully will only deal with SkillsUSA in a limited way. I was always angry with SkillsUSA for the cost of things. Membership fees are understandable but state contest fees and everything are too high. Especially when you sit through the opening meeting at the state competitions and here the treasurer's report that the state chapter has a $80,000 surplus. It just make you wonder who is skimming off the top on the state and national level. I had already made my mind not to compete this year if I was still teaching at my formal school.

It would be nice to know where all this money is REALLY going!!!

By Kix

Date 08-24-2007 12:51 Edited 08-24-2007 13:02

Well, lots of people no nothing of the international skills competiton and what it takes to be a part of it. Just to send our U.S welding representitive to Japan this year is costing us over $56,000 and thats just the welder. Team U.S.A usually consist of up to 11 people representing our country in 11 different competitions and thats pretty sad considering all the competitions that are represented at the International skills competiton. Other countries are sending up to 40 and 50 representitives and we might send up to 11 if we're lucky. Trades are really looked down upon in the states and it's sad. Anyway, i believe team U.S.A this year consist of 1 and thats our welder. Skills U.S.A forked up some of the cash for him to go and A.W.S and some other sponsors. Skills U.S.A can not fit the whole bill alone for each of the other competitors to go oversea's so the rest of the money is usually generated from industry sponsors and i guess they're not willing to go the distance this year. So yeah Skills U.S.A is going to have some extra cash this year because they're only haveing to fork up cash for 1 guy. Maybe 2 years from now if they save this money they will be able to send some guys overseas without industry help, but i don't know how that works. So your money is going to keeping Skills U.S.A alive, buildings to hold competitions in(and to rent out the center in K.C MUCHO GRANDE) events for the kids to attend in K.C. , Funding for Team U.S.A, Training for our U.S competitiors before they go overseas, and all kinds of other hidden cost. I'm not saying that the costs aren't to high ,but it could pay off for you and some of your students in the longrun and to let you know where most of your cash goes. I'd be looking at a guy real close for a job if i knew he had a skills U.S.A background and did well.
I'm not affiliated with Skills U.S.A, but i am someone who helps put on these competitions now. I'm only a few years in now so i'm still learning of what goes on behind the scenes and what it takes to make things happen. There is a guy from Skills U.S.A on the international skills competition committee that i will try to get ahold of to post something up for you guys.

By 357max

Date 08-24-2007 14:21

Two years from now (2009) the International Competition will be in Calgary Alberta Canada. That is not too far to travel if a person wants to see that level of competition.

By Kix

Date 08-24-2007 15:02

No it's not to far to travel and i'm hopeing to be able to spectate at that one. U.S.A will hopefully do well in canada again because all the equipment is basically miller machines witch we are very familiar with and the time change won't be at the most an hour or 2 for whoever goes. My team only had 11 people when we competed in Montreal Canada so even though it was so close other competitors still did not get the support they needed to compete witch is very sad for us being such a big country.

By pmedicann (*)

Date 08-24-2007 17:34

So we've come to the point where international welding competitions are worthy of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent? You just mentioned $56,000 to send ONE contestant to Japan!!!

What affect does that contest have on the welder shortage in my area which I am trying to solve? Isn't that a priority for the AWS? Crunching the numbers, I can train 200 new students to become production welders with that $56,000.

It boils down to priorities and an international welding competition is NOT one of them for my industrial partners. They need welders, but SkillsUSA has students raising funds for red blazers and black pants...Come on, you can see my point here can't you?

Thanks for passing a message along to the SkillsUSA guy. I am really curious to hear a reply.

By Kix

Date 08-25-2007 17:05

Well, this young talented welder can now go on to spread his knowledge and maybe get the interest of even more young talented individuals to want to become welders. Who knows maybe he will become a welding engineer somewhere that can train guys in house to become welders so they won't have to go looking. mmmmmm the possibilities are endless for what this young talent can bring in to the industry. You should look into joining your local AWS section and giveing some of your input. High school councelors are the cause for the shortage of welders in my opinion not AWS.

By aevald

Date 08-25-2007 22:15 Edited 08-25-2007 22:18

Hello Kix, during my lifetime I have been a member of or a parent of a member of many different youth organizations and other types of activities. They all have their financial requirements as well as requirements of time and effort on the part of any number of individuals. You can argue the justifications for these financial expenditures until the cows come home, or you can, as I believe you are essentially saying, reap the benefits of the individuals who have participated in these activities. Repeatedly I have seen individuals who have been able to participate in activities that they would not have had the opportunity to do so if left up to the means of their families, and the result of this association has been a role-model for others.
   As far as your statement concerning school counselors goes it is no small surprise that you would echo this thought as myself and many others feel the same way. I would take it one step farther though, a lot of parents of the youth today look unfavorably on the trades as a way for their kids to earn a living or make them a lifetime career. "Go to college and make something out of yourself" seems to be the norm for promoting secondary education. Instead of maybe saying, " there are any number of opportunities out there to have a career for yourself, have you considered the trades?" There is also the old misconception that if you aren't the scholarly type that immediately qualifies you for the trades. I would agree that there are certain personality types that might be better suited to a trade type of career, myself for instance, I never could picture myself working in a suit and tie type atmosphere, thus certain facets of the welding trade were a natural for me. The opposite of the traditional thinking would go something like this: many facets of the trades require an enormous capacity and need for critical thinking and any number of other academic type educational skills, so the mistake shouldn't be made to think that a trade career isn't mentally challenging and doesn't require a brain. Where I teach there are a mixture of individuals from various disciplines and experiences, the funny thing is that I already know that these other individuals need to have a great understanding of any number of academic principles and many other things in order to be successful at what they do. Many times they will come over to my area and possibly take some classes or just have myself or one of the students do something for them and then I get to see the look on their faces or hear their comments on how they really had no idea of the many things that a trade requires or how complex and difficult some of the things that we do really are. I get to experience a warm glow inside of me every time that this happens.
   One of the things that our government often does is analyze the need for the existence of certain opportunities in our society to the point of absurdity that if they just got behind these things they would waste a lot less time and have more money to realize the successes of these endeavors. For those of you who have to deal with these justification types of policy I'm sure you know what I am referencing. I never promote a system of no checks and balances and I do believe in accountability, however all too often these checks go to the far end of the spectrum.
   Back to Skills/USA for a moment, I'm sure that there are possibly issues with the way that it is run in the eyes of some. I don't know if this is a widespread thing or if it is a localized issue. As some of the other posters have alluded to though those who see these problems should speak up as much as possible to see that the issues are corrected, simply bowing out or turning your head the other way doesn't really address any problems. Just my $.02 Regards, aevald

By fbrieden (***)

Date 08-26-2007 00:34

I believe you should have used effect, instead of affect.

By Kix

Date 08-27-2007 13:09

Could i suggest to teachers to maybe keep the red jakets you have for you welders if it comes out of your budget and just keep passing them down each year. In my highschool and tech college we held on to our jackets and passed them down from generation to generation until they started fadeing. ;-) At state i don't even think it requires you to have to have a red jacket either just a white shirt, black tie, and black pants. I feel skills U.S.A is a vary valuable experiece for teachers and students. You get to see how you stack up against the other teachers of the state and country. I took welding in highschool as a blow off class and would never have got into welding if it weren't for the competitions. The only reason i took welding in college and hell maybe even the only reason i went was so i could keep competing. Another incentive for teachers is that if you are successful and you show your program is doing well you may start getting a bigger budget for more high tech and up to date goodies. I know it would also make me feel on top of the world to have my program and my students recognized for their accomplishments. That feeling is priceless!