Contributed ORGANIZING TEAM — Senior Hayden McDole puts his skills on display at the outdoor welding lab at the Utica Shale Academy in Salineville. The academy plans to start a SkillsUSA welding team to compete in local, state and national competitions.

SALINEVILLE — The Utica Shale Academy is looking for welding students to show off their knowledge as part of the SkillsUSA program.

Superintendent Bill Watson and instructors Matt Gates and John Wright will advise the team and hopes are to enter competitions over the next year. Watson learned of the program while attending a National Coalition of Certification Centers Leadership Summit in Kenosha, Wisc., in July and believed it was the right fit for USA.

“I heard a discussion on how it can showcase their skillsets,” he said. “I thought our students were putting in a lot of hard work and we should get them out there and have them be seen as much as possible.”

According to its website, SkillsUSA is the No. 1 workforce development organization for students and empowers them to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members. The organization represents more than 413,000 career and technical education students and teachers and has chapters in middle schools, high schools and college or post-secondary institutions across the country. The SkillsUSA framework incorporates personal skills, workplace skills and technical skills grounded in academics, which is integrated through a classroom curriculum. Students hone their hands-on skills against industry standards in more than 130 occupational areas, including 3-D animation and welding. SkillsUSA has served more than 14.6 million members since 1965 and its vision is to produce the most highly skilled workforce in the world, providing every member the opportunity for career success.

Watson said officials were distributing information and seeking interest among the community school’s estimated 100 welding students in grades 9-12 to sign up for the program, after which they could take part in local competitions with chances to advance to state and even national contests.

“The students have to complete their welding certificates to be allowed to compete for a spot in a local competition,” he added. “SkillsUSA is a competition platform to demonstrate capabilities and get kids engaged to do creative things that can be outside the box.”

The shale academy is a dropout recovery-and-retention school focusing on career-tech education for at-risk students who have obtained more than 1,100 certifications and graduated 150 pupils since 2021. Students in grades 7-12 undergo a blend of online education through the Virtual Learning Academy by the Jefferson County Educational Service Center with hands-on learning in various trades. Courses include welding, megatronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, AC/DC electric, programmable logic controllers, diesel mechanics and horticulture. For information about USA, call (330) 679-2000 or go online to uticashaleschool.com.