Six hundred students from across the state will meet at the Academy of Careers and Technology in Beckley this weekend to compete in the state SkillsUSA competition.

High school and college students will compete in 38 different categories, including architectural drafting, automotive technology, culinary arts, cosmetology, masonry, plumbing, welding, criminal justice and firefighting, among others.

In the TeamWorks competition, a team of four students will build a joint project in six hours or less, demonstrating their preparation for employment in residential construction.

Team members will analyze a project drawing, write an action plan, give a presentation and demonstrate their ability to work as a team performing skills in residential carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring and masonry.

Students in the TeamWorks category will be judged on cleanliness of job site, timeliness of completing the project and proper inventory of tools and equipment.

In the culinary competition, students will be spending the entire day preparing a four-course meal.

“The culinary competition is always one of the longest,” said Bob Wilson, state director of West Virginia SkillsUSA.

Wilson says 28 of the SkillsUSA competitions will be hands-on and 10 will be leadership-oriented.

“The leadership competitions are where students are dealing with things like job interviewing and job demonstrations, where they’ll teach the judges one piece of their content area,” he said.

“In the firefighting competition, students will have to pick up a 150-pound dummy and a fire hose and drag it around with them ... They’ll dress in a T-shirt and shorts and will be timed on getting fully geared. They’ll compete in all of the big training areas,” Wilson said.

Wilson says the competitors, coming from more than 45 schools around the state, will begin arriving in to Beckley on Friday.

“It’s been a real pleasure working with everyone down in this area,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of community support. All of our judges and chair people come from the Beckley area and have really rallied around us and helped us put together a real nice conference.”

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Students will be competing for gold, silver and bronze medals, industry awards, scholarships and prizes, as well as a chance to compete in the National SkillsUSA competition June 22-27 in Kansas City, Mo.

Students in the collision repair, automotive and diesel categories will be competing for $20,000 in scholarships, awarded by the Nashville Auto Diesel College in Tennessee.

An opening ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at Woodrow Wilson High School. State Schools Superintendent Steve Paine is scheduled to speak at the event.

The competition is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Due to space limitations, some categories will be held at alternate locations as follows:

- Firefighting competition will take place at the Beckley Fire Station No. 3 Training Tower on Eisenhower Drive.

- Culinary arts competition will be held at Mountain State University.

- Building trades will be held at the National Guard Armory in Glen Jean.

- Precision machining will be held at the Mercer County Technical Education Center in Princeton.

An awards ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the WWHS auditorium.

All events are open to the public.

— E-mail:

jayres@register-herald.com