FTR 070 Tim Dwyer – Why You Need to be Involved in Skills USA or Canada

Attracting young people into our industry: Help to Take Skills USA to the Next Level 

Tim Dwyer is an automotive education specialist at ConsuLab, a manufacturer, and provider of automotive training aids.  After 25 years of ownership, he sold his business Superwrench Import Auto in Tulsa, OK to pursue a teaching career at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. There he helped start and instruct the Pro-Tech Automotive Internship program for 12 years. Hear Tim’s previous episodes HERE.

Key Talking Points:

• Skills USA Nationals has 103 different contests going on at once. It is all Career and Technical Education under one roof (CTE)
• Perfectly placed  but mostly unrecognized by many in our industry
• Skills  begin locally,  then through state and national
• Over 20 football fields full of Skills test stations 
• There is also a World Skills every other year 
  • Some countries offer award money and  lifetime jobs for the winners of this contest
• $36 Million is spent to put on this event
• GM donated a 2018 Malibu to the gold medal winner’s program
• We need to start bragging about these events that will help attract young people into our industry
• Designing a skills contest:
  • Attention to detail
  • All stations need to appropriately challenging
  • Consistently repeatable
  • Have a real-world application
    • Equipment, tools, and information
• Bond with parents and a reason to go to school
• Skills show a career path
• Instructors need to step up their game
• Consulab supports Skills at many levels
• As an industry, we must support this program
  • Volunteer to judge a local contest
  • Offer financial support to help pay for travel to the next level contests
• Some state and local winner don’t go to the next level because of funding issues
• We should offer an additional celebration of excellence to all participants and the winners
• Shops can promote Skills in their own network and community
• This is a spectator sport

• A special thanks to Tim Dwyer for his contribution to the aftermarket.
• Books mentioned in the content library HERE
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