NLSC Techspo: Eyes on Contestants & Eyes on Industry
by Justin Cameron, Electrical Occupations Class of 2024
Techspo for the National Championship was certainly one of the highlights of the week.
Over 200 businesses joined with a variety of educational institutions and lined the 41-acre floor — the equivalent of 31 football fields — of the Georgia World Congress Center. On either side, over eighty competition events hosted students from 53 states and territories and nearly 200 judges and contest organizers.
SkillsUSA Organizers featured Architecture and Construction in Hall A, Public Safety, Transportation, Health Sciences, and Arts, IT, and A/V, and Communications in Hall B, and Leadership, Hospitality and Services, Human Services, STEM, and Manufacturing in Hall B. Near to each competition, business, and postsecondary vendors were within eyesight so that, during breaks, students could visit booths and industry could make their way to watch the best of the best compete.
One of the requirements of every competition was to submit a resume; it makes it easy for companies who were interested in contacting students to make those connections, and believe me, plenty of students were practically hired on the spot!
It was super cool to see big companies supporting SkillsUSA. In my case, I benefited from several. My first support came from a travel scholarship from Harbor Freight Tools for Schools. Two of my teammates, also electricians, and I won scholarships to help with the expenses of our trip. I was able to meet with them at their booth and personally thank them. I truly appreciated their financial support, but the support didn’t stop there.
After a year of selling the heck out of candy bars and meat sticks to raise funds for our competitions up ‘til states, back home, The Ellwood Group Inc. shared their generosity with us, as did a graduate from Lawrence County CTC. Over the course of the past few months, our local Hot Head Burritos hosted four different Dine-to-Donuts events and our community came together to join us on those Wednesdays. And — while we were assembling bikes, we got a notice that the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association sent support to our school’s National SkillsUSA Championship Team for one of our members who is studying Restaurant Trades!
Not only did our NLSC Nationals Team experience support, but my suitcase also gained a few extra pounds as I was gifted with a few tools I worked with over the course of the week! I’d like to thank companies like South Wire for a pair of linesman pliers which was super cool because they are a company I follow. I was gifted sets of tools from Channel Loc and Knipex who were kind enough to provide everyone who competed. I’d also like to thank Black & Decker for the box of power tools! I’ll put them all to good use — that’s for sure! I was just happy to be there to compete at this elite level; returning home with tools is very much appreciated.
In all, one of the highlights of the week for me, in addition to the competition, was the Techspo — and I hope to return next year to experience even more! Industry leaders were close enough to see our work, but we were close enough to experience industry opportunities!
If you’re interested in partnering with SkillsUSA, you can check out the opportunity here: https://www.nlsc.skillsusa.org/partners
If you’d like to partner with our chapter of SkillsUSA, we’d greatly appreciate your support and discuss how you might help. Please call us at (724) 658-3583, and we’ll be happy to connect you with one of our advisors.