Mark Payne Skills USA April 2023 Edition

It's April which means it is time for Skills USA. Mark Payne has returned to talk about his new role at DDS and this year's Skills USA competition. Mark will also discuss DDS Companies sponsorship of the Precision Heavy Equipment Competition. 

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Welcome back to education matters. I'm your host, Wayne Ackles. And I am thrilled to have a returning guest on today's show. Mark Payne, who has recently become my boss, we're going to talk about that in a minute, we're also going to talk about SkillsUSA, which it's hard to believe that at the end of this month, it will be SkillsUSA time, which means we're into April and almost into the good weather. So first of all, welcome back, Mark, how you're doing on this Saturday morning, boss? I am doing great Wayne, and easy on the Boss, please. So this has been a fairly recent transition for you, why don't you talk briefly about your new role with us at DDS some of the projects you've been working on in that role, I've I've really continued a lot of the same projects I had as a training coordinator. And I'm just kind of at a at a little different level. Now, some of the some of the things, you know, with the role, and I guess I should probably talk about that first. My new role is the Director of Training and Development and DDS. And a lot of that has to do with both new employee orientation, annual trainings, and then trying to train to help navigate the waters with you and actually learning a lot from you on the gas side of the house, and not understanding what all the new OQ rules look like for all of our different customers. Yeah, that we could spend days on that. And we would lose people after about five minutes. Because there are times I don't even want to talk about it anymore. But yeah, that is, that's a lot of it, the part that I am having a ton of fun with right now. And I kind of started this as a training coordinator is reaching out and doing outreach with the BOCES centers and trying to meet as many students as we can talk to them about career choices and things like that. And whether that be at a career fair or in front of a class, however, we can do that, and try to try to help build pathways for those students into industry, we have, we have the ability to have a great training program, we have a great training program. And so a student, a student isn't going to come to us and just kind of get thrown to the wolves, at least, you know, they're going to have some orientation, they're going to have, you know, some some mentorship that goes along with that. Yeah, and I think we're gonna get to the SkillsUSA part, which is part of that getting out in front of students, the work that you've been doing around recruitment and trying to get our company and I had a conversation with someone last night that's there on the manufacturing side of the construction business, they they work in the metal roofing business, and they were talking about this person that I was talking with was talking about some of the same struggles that we've all talked about, which is finding people that can come in and do the work. And it's we're looking for one kind of skill set, they're looking for a little bit different skill set. But the bottom line is that there is a real need for employees that can do when they when they arrive and and trying to recruit those folks is becoming a bigger part of the challenge for all of us. Well, and not only the skill sets, but the the soft skills, mainly, right? We want that person that's going to, you know, show up for work every day, be very communicative, and you know, talk to us and let us know if they're struggling and that sort of thing that that think that they're alone on the island. But you know, in to that point, I guess, before we get into skills, one thing is realize that the industry has has finally come around to the fact that, hey, we need to do something in order to make this work places like build wet dirt world.com, I would encourage anybody to go check out those resources. Crew collaborative is actually doing something that's really awesome. And I would recommend that anybody can on their website as well. They're actually resources directly for schools, high schools and colleges and things like that, to those pathways into the industry for those students. So students that have that interest or have that spark, but maybe they're just not quite finding their place in the high school. That may be a route for them to actually explore some different options and see what the industry has to offer. Well, and I think it's on the school side of things and that the basis of this podcast has always been about that a piece of this is that for so long, there was the focus on career and college ready and there was a lot of focus on the college side we've talked about here and I don't want to go down that road for too much But I think it's a reminder that when we talk Career Ready, that that career ready can start shortly after high school. That's not to say that someone may not or may need a, an associate's or something like that two years or a trade certificate or something like that. But there's been an awful lot of focus on the four year degree, to the detriment of anything else, those podcasts and sites that you were mentioning, you know, remind us that there are a lot of good livings that can be made. And you and I see it every day with folks that have made a career choice that is not going off to four year college and doing that. So that's a good reminder, because I think we often get locked into in schools pull idea that we've got to send someone off to to get a degree. And that's just not the case. And more and more, it's becoming the case that you don't need to go get that degree to get a solid career going forward. So let's shift gears here a little bit. Since we're, our main mission here is to talk a little bit about SkillsUSA. We're sponsoring it, the DDS companies are, which is I'm very excited that we do that. I think it's important for corporations and companies to give back. And I think this is a fantastic way to give back helps us as well on the recruiting side of things, but again, shows that other path to getting a different take on a career. So Mark, tell us a little bit about it. Again, it's three days coming up in April and tell us what we've got to look forward to well. So basically, at the end of April, the 26th, through the 28th, New York State SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Championships will be held at the fairgrounds in Syracuse. And you know, I highly recommend if you are a school administrator or you know in high school that doesn't currently have skills, try to carve out the 27th to stop in and actually see the competitions and what's going on students will come in, they will have some programming some meetings on Wednesday. Yeah, as you know, we'll we'll start the competition Wednesday night, actually, with a written exam and a couple other things, you know, some housekeeping tasks, we'll lay out the plan for Thursday with the students and then we'll roll our contests on Thursday for us. We're running the precision heavy equipment operations contest with that there are several games that go along with that. We, we unfortunately, aren't going to be able to be in the dirt this year. But it's definitely on my radar to try to get us back in the dirt very soon. But rodeo style games in a lot of other areas. I've walked into that competition before, especially in our area, there's been a small airplane inside the building. There have been multiple new vehicles inside the building new pieces of equipment, you know, students competing and everything from diesel technology to automotive to automotive refinishing to just a number of things. Other buildings include everything from Oh, let's see culinary arts to Criminal Justice, crime scene investigation. I mean, in one year, I had the chance to walk around with my son and actually show him all the different things that students were involved with. And I mean, it was It was eye opening for me. Yeah, and I think that's glad you let off with administrators if you get a chance to get out there because true story guilty when I was an administrator of not making it to those even though I had some students that I was fairly close to competing in those, it's very easy to get wrapped up in the day to day and not be able to pull away and and given given what the job is like sometimes you just can't. But if you can, I think it's well worth taking a look at. One of the things that we're also very excited with this year is we have a partnership with my former district, West Jenny, West Tennessee Tech Club, is putting together some tumblers for us that are going to be part of the swag, if you will, for a lot of our VIPs and winners and different folks. And I want to give a shout out to West Tennessee and their tech club for putting those together. It's just a neat opportunity. It's it really kind of highlights what all of this is about and what we're trying to highlight here, which is skill sets that are developed in house with kids and them getting a chance to demonstrate those skills. So we wanted to give them a shout out today on that as well in terms of that. What are we look at the importance of these things mark? How do you I'm trying to think of the best way to kind of phrase this next question. And that is importance of highlighting the skills and what these kids are doing. Knowing how important do you think that is in terms of not just for those kids, but also the importance of the skills in general? Well, the skills that the students are developing and you know, putting on display here for SkillsUSA, it's, for me, it's not so much about, you know, hey, can the guy knock over this bowling pin or whatever, that that student has worked to prepare to make this thing happen in a lot of cases, they fundraise and everything else to actually get there, you know, they're invested. And honestly, I can tell you from the perspective of a competitor, because I once was a competitor in this very competition. Now, it's huge, you know, you're competing on the state level, it's a lot of times, it's the first exposure for those students out into, you know, the competition world to the bigger world, students that are on the football team. Yeah, they play, you know, multiple schools and things like that. But a student that's involved in like heavy equipment operations, well, this is kind of like the one and only football game, let's put it that way. And this is the big one, this is like going, you know, this is going to states. So it's, that's a great analogy, and in having a chance to be a part of it last year. I mean, it is really an intense, I can speak directly on what we are our role with the heavy equipment piece of it, it's an intense competition. And it starts the night, as you said, that starts the night before with a knowledge test. And then they have to demonstrate those skills and to something that you said earlier about the soft skills, there is a whole piece to this, that they have to show that soft skill side in terms of something as simple as hey, remembering to bring your PPE or protective personal equipment, hardhat, safety vest, gloves, those kinds of things, and their paperwork. And it's, it really is a good opportunity to reinforce those soft skills. They were invested. And you can see that in and it really takes that student and you see a much more grown up student, probably than maybe their teachers and administrators see on a day to day basis because it feels like a work environment. Yeah, they they definitely get that feeling. And again, the student has prepared for this. A lot of times the students that we see are seniors, and those seniors have been looking at this for a year and a half, this is kind of their their big game prior to graduation. So they are very, very much in that and they are thinking about it, they're prepared as well as they can be. But yes, you do see a different side of those students. And you see a lot of students that carry themselves very well. And the employer side, the recruitment side, kind of touching on that piece. That's huge. That is just it's amazing. And you can you can see those kids out there and they're out there. And it's it's a big deal for all of us for sure. Well with that our time is starting to run short. And we we wanted to make sure that we got this episode out there so that people could hear about it. Again, if you are in the vicinity of Syracuse or you have students that are competing, make sure that you check out the SkillsUSA competition, especially on the day of the 27th that's when the competitions themselves will be going there are some other gatherings that happen that like I said the night before and the day after the 27th but to see the kids in action, I would really recommend getting out there to the fairgrounds. It really is quite a sight to see and it takes up quite a bit of the fairgrounds there's stuff going on in the Expo Center and then throughout a lot of the buildings at the fairgrounds so there's something there for everybody. I'd encourage you to get out there and with that I want to thank Mark for taking the time here on a Saturday morning. It wasn't a crap o'clock but it was a you know an hour to pass crap o'clock wish him well on his continued new role as my boss because God knows it's hard to manage me we will. We will be talking again on education matters in New York. Have a great rest of the weekend. This has been education matters New York. I'm your host Wayne Ackles and this is a fat Wolverine productions. Take care and have a great rest of the week.