Kansas City, Mo. -- From June 25-29, more than 14,000 students, teachers, education leaders, and representatives from more than 1,100 national corporations, trade associations, businesses, and labor unions attended the 43rd annual National Leadership and Skills Conference. 
The conference showcases career and technical education students. It included seminars throughout the week, the SkillsUSA Championships, and an awards ceremony. This year's event brought in an estimated $30 million to the Kansas City economy, making it among the largest events in that city.
The highlight of the event was the SkillsUSA Championship at H. Roe Bartle Hall. It is a national-level competition for public high school and college technical students enrolled in trade, technical, and skilled-service profession instructional programs. More than 5,000 students took part in the competition, which was represented by 130 occupational areas ranging from collision repair technology to cosmetology.
Darrel Andrews, the collision repair technical chairman, said the road to the SkillsUSA Championships is not an easy one, noting that each student must first win at the school, regional, and state level before they advance to the SkillsUSA competition. "These students are the best of the best," he said.
Some 77 students (44 high school, 33 postsecondary) participated in the Collision Repair Technology section of the SkillsUSA championship, of which five were women -- the most to compete in the event, Andrews said.
Students were judged based on an ASE written exam score, an interview, and a five-station, hands-on skills competition. The hands-on section included repairing a metal fender with body filler and metal-finishing techniques, refinishing a panel, structural damage analysis and body alignment, plastic repairs, and welding. Scoring criteria included appearance of the finished product, speed, and following safety procedures.
The top three students from high school and postsecondary school were awarded medals, scholarships, and prizes. Joel Tolly of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay, Wisc., took first place in the postsecondary competition, while Nathan Chandler of Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, took second place this year at the postsecondary level.
The secondary contest was won by Scott Raymond of Smith Vocational & Agricultural High School in Northampton, Va., while second place went to Luis Arevalo of Alvin High School in Alvin, Texas.
Andrews said the Collision Repair Technology section would get an additional 11,000 square feet for next year's competition. He said he hopes to use the space to break the Collision Repair Technology group into two sections--one for bodywork and the other for paint.
"In a body shop today, the guy doing the bodywork is not the one painting the car," he said. "We are the next step to the industry, and we want to keep it that way."
Andrews said the students will still be taught the basics, but at the state level they will be allowed to choose whether to focus on bodywork or paint.
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