Students putting skills to the test

COLUMBUS -- High school and college students will be competing in various contests at the 2008 SkillsUSA Nebraska contest this week.

About 700 students are expected to take part in the event, which begins Thursday and concludes Saturday.

SkillsUSA is a national organization that focuses on giving secondary and post-secondary students opportunities to develop skills in trade, industrial, technical, technological and health areas.

The state event will feature more than 70 different contests for students, said Duane Matson, the event’s campus coordinator at Central Community College-Columbus. The college, along with Platte County Agricultural Park and the New World Inn, are contest sites.

“The idea is to develop and promote these type of skills. The contests reward the students, show them that the skills are important,” Matson said.

The contests cover a wide variety of areas from architecture and carpentry, to cosmetology and photography.

Most of the contests are coordinated and judged by local employers, so Matson said the event also provides a good opportunity for students to build relationships for future employment and vice versa.

“Ideally, employers get to see these students and recognize they are developing pretty good skills,” Matson said.

This is the fourth year Columbus has hosted the state event. Locally, there will be teams from the college and also from Columbus High School participating.

The event is divided into three different sessions. The public is welcome to attend. The first session will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the New World Inn. Friday’s session kicks off at 8:30 a.m. at the college, the New World Inn and Ag Park. The award sessions will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the college. Winners of the contests will be eligible to compete at the national contest in June in Kansas City.