River Cities Business Journal: Education

Prep students compete at job skills; Some high school competitions focus on preparation for future jobs

Today's News-Herald

LAKE HAVASU CITY - Extra-curricular activities such as sports, band and drama are an important part of high school life - a time to be enjoyed before the demands of the adult work world take over.

But at Lake Havasu High School, one extra-curricular activity actually helps prepare youth to meet those work-a-day demands.

In SkillsUSA, students practice trades such as drafting, welding and culinary arts, and compete for medals at regional, state and national tournaments.

The events consist of skills that industry considers important for kids to know in today's marketplace, according to Brian Aranguena, an architectural drafting teacher at Lake Havasu High School and a SkillsUSA sponsor.

SkillsUSA has been big at LHHS since the early 1980s, Aranguena said.

A corridor outside the school's industrial arts classrooms is a sort of Hall of Fame of LHHS students who have competed over the years, he said.

At this year's regional competition March 2 in Yuma, LHHS students took the top three medals in five of eight events, including architectural board drafting and architectural CAD drafting.

The school will send 41 students to the state tournament in Phoenix April 23.

The competitions involve hands-on challenges that demonstrate the students' skills and knowledge, Aranguena said.

In the board drafting competition, students have four hours to hand-draw a 1600 square-foot house in three elevations.

In the CAD drafting event, students have six hours to complete drawings for a 2500-3000 square-foot house.

To prepare for the competitions, students practice challenges from previous years' tournaments, then undergo a critiquing process to find out what they could have done differently or better, Aranguena said.

In addition to vocational events, LHHS' SkillsUSA “athletes” also compete in professional and leadership events, such as job interviews, public speaking and management.

“I spend about two weeks teaching my advanced (drafting) kids interviewing skills, how to write a resume, how to fill out a job application, because I know they're going to have to do that,” Aranguena said.

Industrial arts students don't suffer from the current drive for results on standardized reading, writing and math tests, he said.

The students use math and writing skills in class, he said, and they spend time practicing problems specifically to prepare for the tests.

“What I've heard is that the kids that in vocational classes do better on the AIMS because the things they do in the classroom are hands-on,” Aranguena said. “In other classes, they study those things, but they aren't applied.”

The skills students develop in vocational classes and by competing in SkillsUSA do carry over into their work lives.

“I've had quite a few kids who pursued drafting jobs,” Aranguena said, adding that some of them are working at their trade right here in Havasu.