The range of fields within SkillsUSA is wider than many people realize.
A little more than 50 students from Grand Island Senior High are competing this weekend in the SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference at Fonner Park.
Some of those GISH students are participating in diesel mechanics, carpentry, construction and technical drafting. One student is a heavy equipment operator. Other GISH students are competing in mobile robotics technology, culinary arts, commercial baking, TV video production, public speaking, extemporaneous speaking and quiz bowl.
Two GISH students, Max Mendez and Tony Corretjer, are running this weekend for statewide officer positions in SkillsUSA.
Alex Kemnitz, who teaches robotics and engineering at GISH, is on the board of directors of SkillsUSA Nebraska. He is one of two state officer advisors.
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“Out of any organization a student can be a part of, the one that gives students the most profound opportunities is SkillsUSA,” Kemnitz said after Thursday’s opening ceremony.
A Hastings native, Kemnitz was in SkillsUSA in high school. In college, he was a national champion in additive manufacturing.
Being involved in SkillsUSA opened a lot of doors for him.
Not only that, the organization left him well-prepared. Kemnitz says that, like every student who becomes involved in SkillsUSA, he “has the confidence to know that I can handle whatever comes my way, because I’ve been a part of SkillsUSA.”
Leaders want to “get our name out there” to show what SkillsUSA “can do for us in Grand Island, us in Nebraska and us for the nation.”
Kemnitz believes SkillsUSA is closing the jobs gap, and the skills gap.
If Nebraska leaders are “looking at having a skilled workforce that stays in Nebraska, I’d start here. I’d start with SkillsUSA,” he said.
Two representatives of Chief Construction are on the steering committee for SkillsUSA Nebraska.
One of them, now retired, is Dennis Harder.
“I didn’t go to college, and there’s a lot of these kids that can go out and get a job without a college education. That’s what I’m pushing,” said the former project manager for Chief Construction.
People who go into some fields, such as nursing, need a college degree.
But many businesses have open positions for which higher education is not required, Harder said.
In what fields would Chief like to hire right now?
“All of them,” Harder said.
Those needs include construction. “Chief Fabrication’s hiring people all the time. Chief Carriers is hiring mechanics all the time,” he said.
He believes people could be hired in every division of Chief Industries.
Harder’s been involved in SkillsUSA for a long time.
“It’s a great organization. It’s similar to FFA, but without the ag. It’s more industrial.”
People in the skilled trades can find a job, and can earn good money doing it.
“They can make good coin in any field,” Harder said.
Brock Davis, the current president of SkillsUSA Nebraska, says building and technical-based trades have a negative stigma as being “dirty, low-paying jobs. But what we’re really doing is changing that up.”
To do these jobs, you have to be educated and you have to be smart. “These are high paying jobs now. We need to tell people about this. These employers need workers, and we need jobs. We can fulfill both those needs by competing and educating America’s youth,” Davis said.
Davis is a junior at Papillion-LaVista South, a school that’s a hotbed for SkillsUSA. “We’re looking to expand to more schools throughout the state and grow our membership,” he said.
In the Davis family, joining SkillsUSA is a family tradition. “My sisters were all in SkillsUSA. I saw the benefits it had for them. They’re very successful now.”
Carl Harris of the National Association of Home Builders was one of the speakers at Thursday’s opening ceremony.
Harris, who lives in Wichita, Kansas, says there has never been a better time to be a skilled worker.
People with a skilled or technical science education will always have their ability, he said.
Somebody might steal your truck or your tools. “But your skills are yours forever,” Harris said.
He once talked to a woman who told him the hands-on occupations should be known as professions, rather than trades.
Rather than being looked down upon, people who go into those professions are highly regarded by their neighbors, Harris said.
Kemnitz was asked which fields he would urge his students to go into.
Any kind of manufacturing, “especially in this part of Nebraska,” would be good, Kemnitz said.
Auto mechanics and diesel mechanics would be good choices. They are highly skilled, “high-wage and high-need jobs,” he aid.
Other good suggestions are transportation, distribution and logistics.
So, if you look at this area, “we need manufacturers, we need people who can fix things and we need people who can drive things,” Kemnitz said.
If new high school graduates want to “make a lot of money really quick” and do good work, those are his recommendations.
PHOTOS: Beautiful bald eagle stops for a snack in Grand Island
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