Mark Payne returns to discuss the Skills USA Competition. Mark talks about his almost 30 year history with the competition and what it means for the young people who compete in it. This year's competition is April 28, in Syracuse NY.
Mark Payne returns to discuss the Skills USA Competition. Mark talks about his almost 30 year history with the competition and what it means for the young people who compete in it. This year's competition is April 28, in Syracuse NY.
Welcome back to education matters New York. I'm your host, Wayne Ackles. And I have our first second returning guest here, my colleague from DDS companies. Mark Payne is with us again today. And he's here in a role that is very specific to the school environment, and something called the SkillsUSA tournament. I've had students involved with this in the past, and our company DDS companies have sponsorship for this this year. So this is a unique opportunity for us to talk a little bit about it. And a special part of the competition that will be involved with, there's a variety of things that go along with the SkillsUSA competition. And I'm going to turn it over to Mark to reintroduce himself quickly, and we'll get into what's involved with the SkillsUSA competition. Good morning, Mark. How you doing today? Good morning, Wayne. I'm doing well. Doing very well. Thank you for having me back. Well, welcome back. And why don't you tell us a little bit about, you know, let's start with the who, what, where of this tournament that's coming up here in less than a month, some of the background behind it? And let's just start with the who, what, where, and we'll go from there. Okay, well, so SkillsUSA is, has been real prevalent in a lot of the BOCES centers and things like that for quite a few years, that I'll be honest with, you know, we were just talking about this about 30 years ago, was my first, my first go around with it as a competitor in through the BOCES Center here in Cornell. And it was, it was branded a little bit different. It was called Vica. And it was, it was a little different thing. But, you know, it was a great experience, I went as a junior to the state contest. I had watched the seniors compete kind of tried to do a little bit of homework and get ready. And then went back as a senior and, you know, had a had a really good showing i Wow, I felt it was really good showing anyways, at the time for a high school kid that had never really left the valley. So you know, it was a it was a good, good thing. SkillsUSA is is a nationwide and actually they have some contests around the world. These skills, contests, highlight youth in the trades. And there's a ton of different opportunities out there for those students. Some of the contests include, and I'm just going to kind of spit ball right off the top of my head here. But some of the contests include everything from automotive refresh, refinishing, to automotive repair, to precision, heavy equipment operations, which is what I'm involved with, there's different levels of carpentry and masonry, they bring in all these different kitchen, you know, commercial kitchen tools, and set those up as well. And they have culinary, baking, different, different criminal justice fields also have competitions there. There's, there's competitions and OSHA and safety, there's just the list goes on and on and on. So it's a really cool, really cool opportunity for the high school students, you know, juniors and seniors to, to go out there and compete with their peers. And, you know, make friends. There's a lot of folks that I went to those state competitions with that I'm still friends with today. You know, it's just kind of one of those experiences. It's a bonding experience by our advisor. You know, when I was in high school, my advisor, I still see him in the community today. And we still talk and catch up. And, you know, it's just like I said, it's a really nice, nice outfit, and they do quite a lot for the kids. Well, that's, you know, glad you mentioned all the different avenues and pursuits that are in that SkillsUSA competition. And as you said, the area that we're focusing on is the heavy equipment one, and that ties in with a lot of the work that we do at DDS. But also, you know, when I think of it, I had a student that did very well this was a number of years ago when I was still at Fairport in the culinary field. And it wasn't the baking, I think it was the straight culinary. And those are, again, they're great opportunities and a great chance to highlight those skills. And as I've said before, on the podcast, one of the things one of my goals with this podcast, is to highlight those other opportunities other than college when it comes to getting folks ready for the next step after high school. So let's let's get into some of the nitty gritty of this year's actual contest. Why don't you tell us you know where it's going to be held and when the format of the air of the particular contests that you're going to be overseeing. And then we'll get into your role in the creation of this year's contests and everything else. I've been involved with this contest quite a few years. And various roles, I started out as a judge. And then I moved into position where I was kind of the silent co chair for the competition and kind of brought in some extra judges and things like that. And this year, the person that was the chair had asked if I would be interested in chairing the event, and that's kind of where DDS came into this as well. The the contest itself is held at the State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, it's a it's a huge vat. There's people everywhere, multiple buildings are being used for this thing. My the precision heavy equipment competition in particular, is, it's probably going to take us about three days to pull off between mobilization of the equipment and getting everything set up running the actual Contest, which is going to be a full day. And then the close out on Friday, getting all the equipment back to where it needs to be and everything else. So it's it's quite an involved process. For the students. This thing started a long time ago. I kind of glossed over that before. And I guess it's it's pertinent to bring it up. students compete on a progressively larger stage stage, they're going to course they're going to play these games, you know, whatever their instructors come up with in their own local Bosi centers, is practice you know, they're they're just practicing and eventually, they may have a little competition amongst themselves, then then move on to a regional competition, which is generally held. The one that I'm most familiar with was held at Elford State College, but they're held across the state, the state level competition, which is at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, and then some of the students move on to Nationals now. And now all contests have a national contest, the precision heavy equipment operation is one that ends at the state level, which, you know, that's, that's a, that's another hurdle for another time. But again, it's it's pretty cool for these guys, our particular contest, and April 27th 28th, and 29th, the 28th is the actual contest itself, students throughout that day, at least in our area, they will come in Wednesday evening, they will have a meeting with us, there will be a written exam that goes along with it, as well as a, you know, just a little conversation about the industry and about what's going on out and out in the industry. And what the opportunities are, we move on from there to Thursday, the day of the actual competition, there will be several stations where they will get to operate equipment, there will be another station where they will be doing a in depth pre operation check of that equipment, and another station where they may have to do some sort of survey or something like that, that goes along with it. So I would love, love love to talk in depth about what the students are doing. But come on, I don't want to ruin the surprise. Yeah, and and having been working with you a little bit on that. I know there's a little bit of a mischievous on one and two mad scientist on the other end of your approach to some of the tasks that you have in store for them. But hopefully that won't scare people off on it, because I think it is going to be a really neat experience for those folks. And it won't be that hard. But I really liked how you framed that with that this has been something that they've been working toward throughout their vocational careers, and they're the stepping stones from one contest to the next. And the fact that there's even a chance to do you know, to highlight their skills at the national level is really something that is is pretty impressive. Now, right now, you are the chairman, what are some of the things that are involved with that in terms of putting something like this together because it's it's quite an undertaking, and I think it's worth taking just a quick minute to talk a little bit about, you know, some of the other organizations that are helping, you know, as we said, DDS companies is sponsoring this, but we also there's some other folks that are helping pull this off and it would be good to give them a little free love out there while we're while we're talking about it. Well to just start out with as far as DDS companies are concerned there. The amount of time and effort and materials that we're going to put into is is going to be I'm not gonna say it's like crazy, but you know, there's a lot of time and thought that goes into this thing. As far as the help that I'm getting. Let's just talk about internally and then we'll move to externally, as far as DDS is concerned, management has been great. As far as supporting this, they're looking at it as a, as a great opportunity to, to give back as well as to, you know, get out there and in the community a little bit more. As far as the the other help that I've been receiving, you know, like you had mentioned right there, you're, you're kind of my sounding board on a lot of this stuff, and helping me out with some of the administrative side of it, that, that I'm a little rusty on as far as putting this together, it involves some phone calls, and, you know, reach out to businesses and area. Companies that have things assets close by, you know, as well as I do this is the springs is the busy season. And for a construction company, all their equipment is disappearing out of their parking line going to work in now I'm going to ask somebody to come up with some equipment. And that's, that's quite an ask this time of year, even for a day. So with that being said, Monroe tractor has always helped me out. Even even with my previous employment with Alfred State College. Anytime that I call the folks at Monroe tractor, if they have any way in the world to help me out, they always do. So they they've been great. As far as helping me out, I believe they're going to send an ag tracker, and maybe some other stuff. To go along with that I've I've reached out to a couple other companies. And I haven't really received a commitment 100% on those yet. So I'm kind of holding off on those and just kind of holding out. But in the past, some of the other equipment dealerships have stepped up and brought raw materials and equipment in which has been great, everybody from Clark equipment, who's supported the contest several years along now. And they're right there next to the fairgrounds. And it just makes a lot of sense for them to work with us on that. And they've been wonderful about it. Other Other companies, Bobo and a few other ones have also have also taken place or taking part of that Alford state usually supports me with judges and things like that, generally, the heavy equipment operation students from Alford, they've already judged some of the competition, some of the regional competitions. So they they jump in a chance to come up and set it up to Syracuse and see the states. So it's a really cool thing. Yeah, for sure. And having a chance to get to see some of those students, you know, you and I were down there Wednesday, doing some outreach with them. And I was really impressed at your former home there, in terms of the professionalism that those students had and their questions and just how thoughtful as a group, they were the instructors. And so it's great to see, you know, just like you have given back throughout this, your career in terms of reaching back and and helping the next generation, you know, it was neat to see that those that those young people there were going to be doing the same thing. And and that's one of those things that's always important is how do you keep the the cycle fed, and this is part of that. And you've kind of I'm gonna toot your horn for a little bit, because I've seen the work that you've put into it at this point in terms of everything from the scoring sheets, to creating the logistics and marshaling our resources in terms of manpower and just output, who's going to be aware and you know, what equipment that's going to be needed and everything else. So I wanted to give you those kudos for that. Well, thank you, you know, a lot of it. A lot of it was, you know, just coming up through the ranks and things like that and seeing how it was ran in the past. And, you know, I've got to give kudos out to Andy Dennis of GST BOCES and horned owl, he he actually took the bull by the horns and ran with this competition a few years ago and started getting things in place and you know, making those inroads so it made made the transition to me a lot easier. I'll be honest with you at the time, when when Andy was doing this, I was pretty much tied up with the regional competition at Alford and that was, that was kind of one of the big things for me when we when we hosted it Alford. I can just kind of give you a little insight there. It was it shut down the heavy equipment Operations Program for the day to put this thing on. We would pull out all the stops and there was a lot of curriculums it felt the same way and did the same thing called all the stops for these, these students and these high schoolers coming in, we would do tours throughout the day, for those that weren't actively competing at the time, we would, you know, try to make it a worthwhile day for everyone. Everyone involved. So. So it's it's a pretty big undertaking. And like I said, I would, I would be, I would be lost without the help the Andy is has passed forward to me and helping me out, get getting things going. So, but again, I look forward to it. I think that I think it is important. And, you know, I wanted to kind of circle back to the point that you had made about, you know, bringing that other generation along and showing them you know, about giving back and things like that, that was one thing that I didn't know, while I was at Alford, you know, the students that I would ask to participate in these types of events, you know, judging and things like that, they would take it very seriously. They remembered being on the other side of that, and it was very recent for them, they were on the other side of that as competitors, and they knew how it felt. And they, they knew how important it was. And it was nice that I could I could position those students in that role in those roles and kind of help them along as well. So So yeah, it was it's a great partnership, it's a great program. The nice nice part about it is you can involve those students, and you can you can kind of start that ball rolling with, with folks giving back. So you know, it's I'm glad you mentioned, your friend, Andy Dennis, there, the connection with the BOCES, again, is one of the things that we've tried to do here is to also put names out there for folks that are looking to network with people. And again, this is this is something where you're probably networking more somewhat on the private sector in terms of getting the equipment and things like that, but having those connections and this is something that my friends that are still in administration, there's a chance for you to get out to see any of the competitions that are going on that timeframe, that the end of April, I would really recommend getting out there. And again, we will be out there with DDS sponsoring the heavy equipment April 27 28th, and 29th. And we hope to see folks out there to the degree they can there is right now we have limited visibility for this event, because the equipment and some of the safety related to it, there are chances to view some of the other competitions from what we understand. Mark, is there anything else that you want to get in on this upcoming competition before we we wrap it up well to your friends in school administration and things like that, if you have students that are actively participating in BOCES programs and things and you know that they're going to this thing, that's a that's a big, big thing for a high school students to see their homeschool administrator walking around this competition, check it in. And on the folks from that homeschool, if you have a chance if you can make the time I know time is one of those one of those things, it's super valuable. And it's hard to carve out a day, the trip to Syracuse is worth it and your mind will be will be blown. It's it's really something to actually get to walk around and see it. Honestly, I didn't understand the true scope of it until a few years ago, when my son was involved with it. He went with me. Prior to starting at BOCES, he went with me and we took a couple hours and just walked around. And he wanted to check out some of the areas some of the different contest areas and things like that. And I was blown away by the the amount of materials and everything else that they brought in and how many competitors there were so And fun fact, just to kind of talk this up a little bit more today is actually the regional competition for the post secondary. So the college students that are involved with SkillsUSA are competing in Wellsville today at the offered State College campus, and they will be vying for slots to the national competition, and Atlanta. Well, and that would be something that on a future visit we would like to get into because I think again, for people to understand those post secondary opportunities that exist. Well, Mark, I want to thank you again for coming on a second time telling us a little bit about SkillsUSA and again to my administrator and teacher friends that can break away during that last week of April be a big sign to your students and in a big show of support for them if you can make it out there on that last week of April and with that we will wrap up Pop this week's episode of education matters New York have a great week we'll see you again soon