Students from across the state competed head-to-head in a wide range of vocational areas Tuesday at the Hot Springs Convention Center, vying for a chance to advance to the national level in the Arkansas SkillsUSA State Competition.
The areas included cosmetology, masonry, cabinetry, carpentry, criminal justice, electrical, plumbing, welding, automotive service technology, advertising, graphic design, and photography.
"They're doing their best work to be noticed and move on up to the next level, nationals. We try to educate them at the very beginning to let them know that they can earn scholarships from this, it looks good on their resume, it looks good on their school transcript," said National Park College graphic design instructor Glenda Davis, who teaches about 42 high-schoolers earning concurrent credit at the college.
She sees the competition not only as being beneficial, but providing vocational and technical training for high school students as a whole in a positive manner.
"If they're intimidated by their ACT scores, if they're intimidated by the four-year programs, starting out the career tech in high school gives them a little more confidence because it's not just focused on the core classes. It's focused on skills. They feel like they have a purpose. If they can continue taking those classes, we'll see more job growth in those areas in our nation," she said.
"It helps give students a wider range of things to do so that way they're not stuck on one thing. If their plan doesn't work out, they can go with something else. So for me, I plan on doing fine arts. But if that doesn't work I can go with graphic design or photography. So it helps broaden our options for careers," said Emily Talos, a Lakeside High School senior who explained how concurrent career education classes at NPC have benefited her.
National Park College automotive instructor Don Foshee was in attendance Tuesday to observe two of his students competing.
"Our numbers have been growing. This is my 13th year, so our numbers have been growing for the past probably seven years. It's just kind of started to take off. We're getting a lot more students that are going into the local dealerships," Foshee said.
"There's a big need for them right now. There's a lot going on all over the state. They're going to need somebody to work on this high-tech automotive stuff," he said.
Foshee estimated 30-40 NPC students and high school students enrolled in concurrent courses at the college competed during Tuesday's competitions.
As director of NPC's Technology Center, Mike Wiles oversees the high school vocational and technical training programs at the college.
Since he came to the position three years ago, the programs now serve over 600 Garland County high school juniors and seniors. Wiles said that the career programs at NPC have seen 15.1 percent growth in the past three years.
He said he feels that high school students in particular can benefit from vocational and technical education programs before matriculating.
"I've been in education 25 years, and I've watched students graduate and float. Or they go away to college and they're not ready for the culture shock because they're around students they've never been around before. So what we do is they're all lumped together. So they're exposed to people they didn't grow up with. So it's a good step for them to transition into the workforce and into college, whatever is the next step."
While he acknowledged technological advancements and the jobs they've create in vocational fields, Wiles said that the demand for vocational and technical workers has increased for a different reason.
"It's more an aging workforce. There is a severe need for automotive service technicians statewide. There's this phenomenal need for folks all over the state to fill those positions. So the need is there primarily because of all those people that are retiring. It's just that manufacturers can't find the folks that they need, and so what we're trying to do is create opportunities for our kids to fill those positions and make something out of themselves," Wiles said.
Competition winners will be announced and given medals at an awards ceremony to be held today at 10 a.m. in the convention center.
Local on 04/10/2019