Contact: Scott Soldat, Director

Phone: 602.542.5565

Email: ssoldat@azskillsusa.org

Time to fire up the welding torches and skill saws; polish those speaking skills and iron that red blazer; it’s once again time for the SkillsUSA Arizona Championships.

SkillsUSA Arizona returns to downtown Phoenix for the annual SkillsUSA Arizona Championships on April 7-9, 2009. Over 2000 students, teachers, industry partners and spectators will descend upon the Phoenix Convention Center to see Arizona’s future workforce in competitions that range from Cosmetology, Web Design and Welding to Carpentry, Prepared Speech and Robotics Engineering.

The two-day event features career and technical education students from Page to Douglas and Lake Havasu to Show Low and all points in between. Student contestants will demonstrate their skills to industry judges that will determine the winning contestants who will represent Arizona at the SkillsUSA Championships during late June in Kansas City, Missouri.
 

Sponsoring companies include Lowe’s home improvement stores, P.I.P.E.—Piping Industry Progress and Education, Able Information Technologies and many other Arizona companies.

At the closing of the contests, an exciting awards session at the Phoenix Convention Center highlights the two-day often-grueling competition with the announcement of who had the skills necessary to be a state champion. Only the first place contestant in each contest will have the opportunity to attend the national SkillsUSA Championships, and compete against gold medal winners from around the country and U.S. territories.

SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry, working together, to ensure America has a skilled workforce. By working directly with over 300 Arizona career and technical education teachers SkillsUSA helps teachers provide workplace readiness skills and technical skills that are expected from industry. SkillsUSA is a national organization for students enrolled in trade, technical, service and health care occupations education. SkillsUSA emphasizes the respect for the dignity of work, high standards in trade ethics, workmanship, scholarship and safety. It promotes the understanding of the free enterprise system and encourages the practice of democratic policies.

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