AWFS Fair 2023

Five Students of WCA Affiliated Schools Honored in AWFS Fair Fresh Wood Contest

Gage Day, a student at Corner Canyon High School of Draper, Utah, won Best of Show Award for his Mind Wander table.

Students attending Woodwork Career Alliance EDUcation member high schools and postsecondary schools garnered two first places, two second places and an honorable mention in the 2023 AWFS Fresh Wood student woodworking competition.

Students at Lincoln East High School of Lincoln, Neb., took first and second place in the High School Design for Production category. Ethan Kleen took first place honors for his Designer Chairs for Kids. Ruby Bunisky won second place for The Millera Chair.

Students of Cerritos College of Norwalk, Calif., won two awards as well in the Postsecondary Tables category. Shirley Hsu won first place for her Hug Table while Chip McCarthy earned an honorable mention for his Nautilus Table.

Pacey Berken, a student of Fox Valley Technical College of Oshkosh, Wis., placed second in the Postsecondary Seating category for his Hemispheres chair.

Forty finalist projects from 20 different high schools and colleges were showcased at the AWFS Fair, held last week in Las Vegas.

KCD Software, a Gold Sponsor of the WCA, sponsored the Best of Show Award won by Gage Day, a student at Corner Canyon High School of Draper, Utah, for his Mind Wander table.

PantoRouter, also a Gold Sponsor of the WCA, sponsored the People’s Choice Award won by Zander Doherty of Dos Pueblos High School for his Sam Maloof Inspired Rocker. Doherty’s school will be presented with a PantoRouter machine.

The Fresh Wood 2023 judging panel consisted of Ethan Abramson, Brian Boggs, Lois Snyder, Thomas Tuck, and Jamie Yocono.

SkillsUSA Tests Students’ Cabinetmaking Abilities in a Race Against Time

Photos by Kristine Cox, Rowland Woodworking

Fifty-five competitors representing high schools and colleges from around the country had merely eight hours to create a highly customized standing cabinet. At the end of the day, only six of them departed Atlanta with a medal in the 2023 SkillsUSA Cabinetmaking competition.

The Cabinetmaking contest was one of 110 separate events held during the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference, June 18-24 at the Georgia World Congress Center. In addition to Cabinetmaking, more than 6,500 students competed for gold, silver, and bronze medals in a far-flung variety of events including Carpentry, CNC Programming, Baking, and T-shirt design.

Each of the students earned a berth in the national championships by taking first place in their respective state competitions.

Winners of this year’s SkillsUSA Cabinetmaking competition included:

Postsecondary/College
Gold: Ethan Dalton, Anthis Career Center, Fort Wayne, IN
Silver: Ethan Jacobson, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT
Bronze: Luke Laing, Alexandria Technical & Community College, Alexandria, MN

Secondary/High School
Gold: Matthew Holden, Mt. Pleasant High School, Mt. Pleasant, TN
Silver: Clay Beal, West Henderson High School, Hendersonville, NC (WCA EDUcation member)
Bronze: Jerald Wetzel, Bonduel High School, Bonduel, WI

Clay Beal of West Henderson High School won a silver medal this year. He won a bronze medal in SkillsUSA 2022.

Project Overview
The contestants were tasked with building a free-standing cabinet with the materials and drawings supplied. Features of the cabinet included an 11-piece door, a top with a trapezoid plywood core with hardwood edges, a drawer, a base shelf, and tapered legs.

To create the cabinets, the students were required to read the drawings, lay out, and cut out the parts using a table saw, band saw, hand drill, hinge boring machine, and various other hand tools. Adding to the challenge, they had the pressure of working in tight quarters surrounded by their competitors while the clock was ticking down to complete their projects. They were judged on how well their assembled cabinet met the specified tolerances and aesthetics of the design.

Kent Gilchrist, technical chair of SkillsUSA and a member of the Woodwork Career Alliance Board of Directors, developed the prototype of this year’s project.

“When I came up with the concept, I started with an art nouveau style,” Gilchrist said. “I scaled it back somewhat, but still wanted to do something with curves to make the project more interesting and challenging. For example, each of the curved muntin bars on the door has a hand-cut tenon at the end to insert into the grooves of the adjoining bar.”

“So much of what we are doing in industry today is automated,” Gilchrist added. ”What’s not automated are the measuring and layout components of the project. You still have to be able to do that.”

Three Major Project Challenges
Of the 55 students who competed – 41 high school, 14 postsecondary – only five or six of them completed the project within the allotted time and none without errors. The fact that mistakes will be made is a given as this is probably the most demanding project any of the competitors has tackled, Gilchrist said. The keys to winning a medal included minimizing mistakes by thinking through the creation of the individual components and managing time effectively.

Gilchrist pointed to three of the most challenging aspects the competitors faced to replicate the prototype cabinet.

THE DOOR: The 11-piece door consisted of two sold wood stiles, two solid wood rails, three solid wood curved muntin bars – all ¾ inch — and four pieces of 1/4-inch veneered panel. “To save them time, the muntin bars had grooves cut on each side to receive the veneered panels that they cut to size and shape using a template on a bandsaw,” Gilchrist said.

“There actually were two sets of these veneer panels with the inlaid muntin bars, one for the door and one for the back of the cabinet. I wanted them to do that because we do so much panel work in the industry. It emphasized the need to accurately measure and lay out the components.”

“A lot of them did struggle with the hand-cut tenons because they were never asked to do that,” Gilchrist noted. “While contestants are always asked to bring a hand saw and chisels, most of them never really seem to use them much and it showed.”

THE TOP: The core material of the cabinet’s top had a trapezoid shape. The contestants had to create the trapezoid core and then cut solid wood edges to apply at each end to create a rectangular top.

“We had a fixture for them to cut the trapezoid core,” Gilchrist continued. “While it was designed to be cut with the face down, many cut it with the face up. As a result, there were a lot of backward tops with the trapezoid going the wrong way.”

THE SHELVING: “The half-lap joinery on the shelving puzzled some of them,” Gilchrist said. “We noted on the drawings that it was a half lap and that both sides were to be dadoed. The leg was 7/8-inch thick and the shelf was ¾-inch thick. The dado was set up for the ¾-inch thickness of the plywood but they had to remember to measure to the right point of the leg and then make a second pass in order to get the right thickness on where the shelf would saddle over the leg. Some wanted to go the easy route and just dado one side. Some couldn’t understand why they had to dado both sides. But that’s how you get a better joint.”

Upping the Ante
Gilchrist heads a committee made up of woodworking professionals and instructors from around the country. Most of them have ties to the Architectural Woodwork Institute and all are involved with their respective state’s SkillsUSA competitions leading up to the national championships.

Members of the 2023 SkillsUSA Cabinetmaking Technical Committee included:
Kent Gilchrist
, Fremont Interiors, SkillsUSA technical chair/AWI SkillsUSA Committee member
Kristine Cox, Rowland Woodworking, AWI SkillsUSA Committee chair
Joe Davis, Dale Jackson Career Center, SkillsUSA Education Committee chair
Tony Aubin, Aubin Woodworking, AWI SkillsUSA Committee member
Ryan Flanagan, Riverside Architectural Millwork, AWI SkillsUSA Committee member
John Volpe, Volpe Millwork, AWI SkillsUSA Committee member

“One of the committee’s goals has been to make the national competition more difficult to match the expectations that we have in the industry.” Gilchrist said. “As we have built up the level of challenges for the national SkillsUSA proejct, we have seen that the advisors at the state level have upped their game dramatically.

“For instance. when I took over the Indiana contest, it was a written test for cabinetmaking. They didn’t build anything. The students took a written test and the winner went to nationals. They were at a loss. Indiana typically placed middle to the lower end of the group at nationals. Since we added a skills competition in Indiana, we had one student place second last year in high school and this year an Indiana student won gold in postsecondary. It was the first time we ever had a postsecondary competitor from Indiana,” Gilchrist said.

In addition to ratcheting up the SkillsUSA project to make it more challenging, the committee also expanded the orientation day before the competition to include more presentations about the woodworking industry including an overview of career opportunities and new technologies. Woodworking instructors who attended SkillsUSA met separately to learn about the WCA skill standards and credentialing system, AWI scholarship opportunities for their students, and to engage in an open forum with their peers.

Industry Support
The following companies provided services, equipment, and products for the SkillsUSA Cabinetmaking contest.
A1 Face Veneer
American Packaging
Bell Cabinetry & Design
Blum
Boyce Highlands
DeWalt Power Tools
Flexible Materials
Grizzly Industrial
Hafele
Irwin Industrial Tools
Lamello/Colonial Saw
Richelieu
Rockler Woodworking
Rugby Architectural Building Products
Sawstop
SCM North America
Shaper Tools
Widgetco
Woodwork Career Alliance of North America

Note: WCA INDustry Sponsors are bold faced.

 

 

 

President’s Message: Meet Us in Las Vegas!

The 2023 AWFS Fair is quickly approaching and WCA is preparing for a robust show!

This year, our major focus is on helping more wood products manufacturers create or improve their in-house training programs.

For starters WCA Board Member Bruce Spitz and myself will conduct a workshop, “Building a Training Program for Your Workers,” 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 25. Our colleague, Greg Larson, vice president of the WCA, will present, “Teaching and Evaluating the Wood Industry’s Skill Standards,” from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Thursday, July 27. Learn more.

We also recently announced our drive to enroll more woodworking companies as MANufacturing members. By becoming a member they can utilize our skills standards and Passport credentialing program, plus gain access to our extensive library of training videos and other instructional materials. Attendees of Tuesday’s workshop qualify to join the WCA as a MANufacturing member for $100, a 60% savings on their first-year membership.

As we move through the remainder of 2023, WCA is creating online training modules that will benefit our MANufacturing members to make their training programs more effective.

We’re looking to build out our MANufacturing membership base during a period of record growth of the number of EDUcation high schools and postsecondary schools. I’m proud to announce that we issued 1,070 credentaisl during this past spring semester. This is an all-time high for the program. Hopefully we will soon see some of these students enter the secondary wood processing industry armed with basic yet essential skills to begin successful careers.

We hope to sign up more high school and postsecondary woodworking programs as EDUcation members in Las Vegas. In fact, instructors affiliated with a variety of WCA institutions will share their knowledge and expertise in five of the seven education sessions slated for the Teacher Track at next week’s AWFS.

Thanks to our INDustry sponsors, we have provided eight woodworking instructors with $850 scholarships to defray the cost of attending AWFS. By being able to attend the show, they can see the latest technology and products, and can network with exhibitors and woodworking professionals to stay in tune with industry’s needs.

As we move through the remainder of 2023, WCA is creating online training modules that will benefit our MANufacturing members to make their training programs more effective.

Please stop by our booth #1377 to learn more about our programs and to discuss how we can help you with your company’s training needs.

Hope to see you at AWFS!

Scott Nelson
President
Woodwork Career Alliance of North America
snelsonwca@gmail.com

Welcome New Members & Sponsors!


The Woodwork Career Alliance of North America is pleased to welcome the following new members and renewing sponsors.

Thank you for your membership and support!

New EDUcation™ Members
The Fredericksburg Workshop LLC – Fredericksburg, VA
Next Step of West Michigan – Grand Rapids, MI
New Berlin West Middle & High School – New Berlin, WI
Peyton School District #23Jt – Peyton, CO

Find WCA EDUcation™ woodworking programs in your area.

New MANufacturing™ Members
BC Wood Specialties Group – Langley, BC
Lanz Cabinets – Eugene, OR
William’s Handcrafted LLC – Richmond, VA

INDustry™ Gold Sponsor Renewals
Daniels-Olsen
, Metro Hardwoods – Sioux Falls, SD
KCD Software – Cataumet, MA
Newman Machine — Browns Summit, NC
Roseburg Forest Products – Springfield, OR
Thermwood Corporation – Dale, IN

INDustry™ Silver Sponsor Renewals
Brookhuis,
Jefferson, GA
GDP | GUHDO – Marietta, GA
Weima America – Fort Mill, SC

View all WCA INDustry™ Sponsors & Supporters.

Learn more about the benefits of becoming a WCA sponsor.

Woodwork Career Alliance Launches Drive to Enlist More MANufacturing™ Members

Jefferson MillworkMembership benefits include access to online training videos and instructional guides.


LINCOLN, Neb. –
Wood product manufacturers looking for a solution to recruit, train, and retain skilled production employees should consider becoming a MANufacturing™ member of the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America (WCA).

The WCA MANufacturing membership is designed for forward-thinking woodworking companies willing to train, evaluate, and reward employees for growing their skill sets. The modest annual $250 MANufacturing membership subscription packs a lot of value.

Benefits include:

  • Credentialing – Develop a more cohesive in-house training program that incorporates the WCA Skill Standards and Passport credentialing system. Create individual employee pay incentives based on achieving measurable objectives in expanding their skill sets, making them more valuable members of your production team.
  • Training Tools – Gain access to online employee training materials, including instructional guides and videos created by seasoned woodworking educators.
  • Evaluator Training — WCA will train selected employees online as in-house Accredited Skill Evaluators to administer your credentialing program.
  • Customization — Optional customization of the program to fit your company’s needs including development of new skill standards to match your production equipment.
  • Promotion — Use of the WCA logo and brand on your website and communications. Make a bold statement to current and prospective employees, as well as your customers, that your company is committed to incorporating industry-vetted skill standards in your training program.

“The Woodwork Career Alliance was launched to develop a professional credentialing program to rival well-established programs in automotive, metal working, welding, and other skilled trades,” said WCA President Scott Nelson. “The WCA’s formative years were spent developing woodworking Skill Standards and credentialling programs. Over the last decade, hundreds of high school and postsecondary school woodworking programs have used the WCA Skill Standards to teach their students how to safely set up and operate key woodworking machinery based on industry best practices.

“We are now in the process of placing greater emphasis on working with professional woodworking companies of all sizes and types to adopt the WCA credentialing system to train their workforce,” Nelson added. “The ultimate goal is to help woodworking companies create career paths for production employees by rewarding them for improving and expanding their skills, and thus value to the company.”

Greg Larson, vice president of the WCA, said new online training programs are being developed that MANufacturing members can choose to use at an additional cost. “We are close to launching an online training module focused on math, measuring, and layout, important prerequisites for aspiring woodworkers. We plan to follow that up with modules devoted to topics including milling and machining, adhesives, and cabinet construction.”

MANufacturing is one of three major membership categories of the WCA. The other two are EDUcation™ and INDustry™ Sponsor.

Learn more and join the WCA as a MANufacturing member.

About the Woodwork Career Alliance
The Woodwork Career Alliance of North America was founded in 2007 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and is governed by a volunteer board of directors. The WCA’s mission is to develop and administer a unified set of Skill Standards for the wood products industry. Since 2011, WCA has developed observable and measurable performance standards and assessments for more than 300 woodworking machine operations. In addition, WCA has issued over 5,000 Passport credentials, a portable, personal permanent record documenting each holder’s record of woodworking skill achievements. More than 160 high schools and post-secondary schools throughout North America are WCA EDUcation™ members and a growing number of woodworking companies have joined the WCA as MANufacturing™ members. To learn more about the WCA and how to get involved with its programs, including sponsorship opportunities, visit WoodworkCareer.org.

Student Woodworkers of Two WCA Shools Take Top Prizes in Castle USA Contest

Reed-Custer High School students worked together on a custom ktichen that impressed judges in Castle USA’s What’s Your Angle student woodworking contest.

High School students of woodworking programs in Illinois and Nebraska took top honors in Castle USA’s 2022-23 “What’s Your Angle” student contest.

Students of Reed-Custer High School of Braidwood, Ill., won the Class Entry category for a custom kitchen cabinet build. DJ Shaw, a student at Lincoln East High School of Lincoln, Neb., won the Individual category for a Side Pocket Chair. Both winning schools are EDUcation members of the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America.

DJ Shaw, a student at Lincoln East High School of Lincoln, Neb., won the Individual category for a Side Pocket Chair.

The Reed-Custer High School woodworking program won a TSM-12 Pocket Cutting Machine. DJ Shaw won a Castle 110 Pocket Cutter Professional Bundle.

The judging panel included Will Sampson, editorial director, Woodworking Network; Rob Johnstone, publisher, Woodworker’s Journal; Logan Wittmer, editor in chief, Popular Woodworking; Jim Heavey, master woodworker, Wood Magazine; Phil Johnson, master craftsman.

Contest entries were evaluated based on the overall look and presentation of the project as well as the most effective and innovative use of screw pocket joinery. The use of Castle machinery or products was not required.

How WCA’s Credentialing Program Maps Career Paths for Woodworking Pros

Photo by Delia Palmisano

According to a 2021 study conducted by Woodworking Network and the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America, nearly three-quarters (73.8%) of  participating woodworking representatives indicated it is “very challenging” to hire qualified workers for their manufacturing operations. What’s more, most (57.9%) said the challenge to find and hire good help is “much more challenging” than three years before.

We are willing to wager that hiring issues remain the woodworking industry’s number one concern. The skilled worker shortage is a universal and perpetual problem for all of the skilled trades that promises to only worsen as more Baby Boomers retire.

Knowing that the woodworking industry’s skills gap would not fix itself, the Architectural Woodwork Institute and U.S. Forest Service partnered to found the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America in 2007. The overarching goals of the not-for-profit WCA are to elevate woodworking as a profession, support workforce development through the creation of skill standards, and create career paths based on the Passport credentialing program recognized throughout the U.S. and Canada. WCA credentials encompass measurable skill standards for more than 240 woodworking operations and machines ranging from accurately reading a tape measure and safely setting up and using a table saw through spray finishing and operating a CNC router.

Creating Career Pathways
How can the woodworking industry benefit from a robust, nationally-recognized credentialing program?

For a clue, take a look at how well-established credentialing programs are helping the automotive, metalworking and welding industries recruit, train and retain skilled workers. And keep in mind that these are but three skilled-job industries with which wood product companies compete for qualified help.

  • Established in 1972, the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence administers one of the best-known credentialing programs. More than a quarter million ASE technicians and mechanics are employed at dealer and independent auto clinics. In addition to elevating career opportunities for auto care professionals, shops that embrace ASE certification can promote that their mechanics are ASE certified to earn the trust and business of consumers.
  • The National Institute for Metalworking Skills was formed in 1994 to establish industry skill standards, certify individual skills against the standards, and accredit training programs meeting NIMS quality requirements. NIMS has developed skills standards for everything from machining through industrial maintenance. More than 150,000 credentials have been issued in precision metalworking and industrial maintenance disciplines.
  • The American Welding Society offers nine different certification categories from inspectors and supervisors to engineers and fabricators. Since its introduction in 1976, more than 100,000 welding inspector certifications alone have been awarded.

In comparison, the WCA has now issued more than 6,000 Passport credentials, a portable, personal permanent record documenting each holder’s record of woodworking skill achievements. The WCA’s issuance of Passports is accelerating. More than 1,400 were issued in 2022. More than 950 Passports have been issued so far this year.

Setting the Standard of Professionalism
No matter what the occupation, the success of an industry-developed and validated credentialing program hinges on the buy-in of employees and employers alike. Some of the shared attributes of most credentialing programs for the skilled trades, include:

  • Certified professionals receive the respect and recognition they deserve for their commitment to professional development. Their credentials make them more marketable to find a job and more desirable for companies to want to hire them.
  • Employers can incorporate industry skill standards to help frame their training programs and develop incentive programs based on employees successfully achieving new skills. This creates a tool that can be used both for recruitment and retention.
  • Because they are based on industry-accepted standards, the individual’s credentials are transferrable from one employer to the next.
  • Professional credential programs are promoted to high schools and postsecondary CTE programs to help make their curricula more relevant in preparing students for successful careers in modern-day manufacturing.

The Training Dilemma
The Woodworking Network/WCA workforce study found that only 21.2% of companies have a written training procedures while 40.4% have no formal training program at all. The initial thrust of the WCA’s outreach has been working with high school and postsecondary woodworking programs to adopt the WCA credentialing programs to teach students how to safely and efficiently operate woodworking eqiupment to industry-vetted skill standards. More recently, the WCA has looked to bring more woodworking companies on board as MANufacturing members.

The bottom line is that woodworking employers want people who are dependable, trainable and committed. On the other side of the coin, employees want to be fairly compensated and have opportunities to advance their careers as payback for committing their time and energy to become more skilled and productive woodworkers.

The WCA, with its skill standards and Passport credential program firmly in place, has set the foundation to bring the two sides together so that the woodworking industry can develop and grow a skilled workforce. We encourage everyone who has a stake in the long-term health and prosperity of this time-honored vocation to lift up the hood and take a closer look at what the WCA has to offer.

Learn more about the WCA’s Passport credential program.

President’s Message: WIC Silent Auction Strikes a Chord for WCA

The iconic Hotel Coronado was the scene of some spirited bidding during the 2023 Woodworking Industry Conference (WIC).

A ukulele hand crafted by Jim Laster of Newman Machine Company fetched $3,010 to benefit WCA during the silent auction organized by the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America and the Woodworking Machinery Industry Association. Jim has not only demonstrated tremendous support for WCA at this year’s and past WICs, his company is one of our Gold Sponsors.

The same can be said for Joe Hammock, winning bidder of the prized ukulele. Friulmac also is a long-time Gold Sponsor of the WCA.

Woodworking Industry Conference 2023 Silent Auction to benefit Woodwork Career Alliance

Joe Hammock, left, was the winning bidder for the ukelele made by Jim Laster, right. Hammock gifted the guitar to Eric Boose, center, and his family, long-time friends and owners of RT Machine. 

Additional funds were raised for the WCA via a Casino Night during the WIC.

Rest assured the sponsorship money that we received will be well spent. In addition to supporting high school and postsecondary woodworking programs, some of it is being used to help defray the cost of eight woodworking instructors to attend the upcoming AWFS Fair in Las Vegas. This is a great opportunity for them to see the latest technologies and supplies, network with industry representatives, and attend workshops and seminars.

The seven instructors include:

  • Mark Smith, Reed-Custer High School – Braidwood, IL
  • Jeff Krabbenhoft, Lewis Central High School – Council Bluffs, IA
  • Lizzy Conley, Madison College – Madison, WI
  • Carl Grunewald, Kettle Moraine High School – Wales, WI
  • Mike Davis, Serrano High School – Phelan, CA
  • Jon Heithold, East High School – Lincoln, NE
  • Brad Bagnall, Bowness High School – Calgary, AB, Canada
  • Keith Deese, West Henderson High School, Hendersonville, NC

Speaking about the AWFS Fair, representatives of the Woodwork Career Alliance Board of Directors, and several WCA EDUcation members will conduct numerous educational sessions over the first three days of the show.

I will once again team up with Bruce Spitz to present a three-hour workshop, “Building a Training Program for Your Workers,” 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25. Greg Larson, vice president of the WCA, will present “Teaching and Evaluating the Wood Industry’s Skill Standards,” from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Thursday, July 27.

You can learn more about all of the WCA-related sessions here.

Finally, I’m elated to report that we are well on to establishing a new annual record for our Passport credentialling program. We have already added more than 950 new candidates since Jan. 1 compared to the 1,400+ that we recorded during all of 2022!

Be sure to stop by and see us at booth 1377 to learn more about the benefits of becoming a WCA EDUcation member, MANufacturing member or sponsor. If you are already a member, let us know what we might do to improve the products and services that we offer.

I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas.

Scott Nelson
President
Woodwork Career Alliance of North America
snelsonwca@gmail.com

 

Welcome New Members & Sponsors!


The Woodwork Career Alliance of North America is pleased to welcome the following new members and renewing sponsors.

Thank you for your membership and support!

New EDUcation™ Members
Elkhorn Area High School – Elkhorn, WI
Inclusive Pathways to Success – Vienna, VA
Kelly Walsh High School – Casper, WY
Kirtland Community College – Grayling, MI
Mid – Maine Technical Center – Waterville, ME
Nicolet High School – Waukesha, WI
Pamlico County Schools – Bayboro, NC
Rebuilding Exchange – Evanston, IL
Sam Beauford Wookshop – Adrian, MI
Wittenberg Birnamwood HS – Wittenberg, WI

Find WCA EDUcation™ woodworking programs in your area.

New MANufacturing™ Members
Wright Architectural Millwork – Northampton, MA

MANufacturing™ Member Renewal
Jefferson Millwork & Design, Inc. – Sterling, VA

INDustry™ Gold Sponsor Renewals
Blum – Statesville, NC
Cantek America
– Blaine, WA
Kerfkore –
Brunswick, GA
Rev-a-Shelf
– Jeffersontown, KY

INDustry™ Silver Sponsor Renewal
Black Bros.
– Mendota, IL
CP Adhesives Group – Newark, OH
Deerwood Fasteners
– Conover, NC
Gemini Coatings – El Reno, OK
Super Thin Saws Waterbury, VT

View all WCA INDustry™ Sponsors & Supporters.

Learn more about the benefits of becoming a WCA sponsor.

Passing the Sawblade at Madison College

Lizzy Conley, new director of Madison College’s Cabinetmaking and Millwork program, poses with Patrick Molzahn, her mentor and predecesor.

After building Madison College’s Cabinetmaking & Millwork program into one of the most prestigious in the nation over the past two decades, Patrick Molzahn has stepped down and handed over the reins to one of his former “star” students.

Lizzy Conley, who graduated with a technical diploma from Madison College in 2018, officially became program director this January. Molzahn has continued to work with Conley through a well-planned 2-1/2-year transition pending his retirement at the end of this year.

Conley was one of 10 applicants interviewed to succeed Molzahn.

“I was one of a team of five involved in making the final decision,” Molzahn says. “We had a rigorous interview process, but Lizzy rose to the top. Even though Lizzy has less experience in production and manufacturing, she is a very good craftsperson. She also has excellent communication, organization and other skills that transfer into the role of program director. She brings a fresh view to the program. I think as a woman, she has the ability to outreach and encourage more women to come into the trades.”

“If you had asked me even three years ago if I thought that this is where my life would be, I would have said. ‘No way.’ It wasn’t on my radar.” Conley says. “The fact that I had the opportunity to be a student in this program and that Patrick ever since has been such a solid mentor is what made this possible. I just feel so fortunate to be able to build off a program that has such great bones. I’m so excited for where I am and for where the future will take me.”

Conley’s Woodworking Odyssey
Conley describes her ascent to program director of Madison College’s Cabinetmaking and Millwork program as a “journey filled with twists and turns.”

She attended the University of Wisconsin where she earned a degree in African languages and literature along with a minor in environmental studies. After graduating, she accepted an environmental development job in Tanzania.

“They speak Swahili in Tanzania, which is the language I had been studying.” Conley says. “I lived there for 14 months and learned a lot, but it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I decided I could be of much more use in my own community.”

Upon returning to Madison, Conley says she struggled to find a job in the “highly competitive non-profit world” that met her expectations. “There were a lot of qualified individuals looking for similar jobs. I was kind of floundering around a bit taking odds jobs here and there. I actually ended up on a vegetable farm. That’s where I learned I needed a vocation that was hands on. That was kind of the beginning to my ascension to woodworking.”

Conley had worked on the farm for a couple of years when her mother mentioned watching a TV show about furniture making. “She told me, ‘I think you could do that;” Conley says, adding, “She takes all of the credit for my career path as she rightly could and should.”

When Conley researched opportunities to learn woodworking, she said she was “pleasantly surprised that such a high-ranking institution was right in my backyard. I had no idea about Madison College’s Cabinetmaking program. It seemed like a no-brainer for me to join the program. I spent a year there and fell in love with woodworking. The rest is history.”

After earning her diploma, Conley first went to work for a kitchen cabinet manufacturing start-up followed by a job with a custom furniture shop. “Then Patrick pulled me back in to be his part-time lab coordinator and I slowly made my way to teaching.”

Conley cannot say enough about the positive influence Molzahn has had on her career. “Even after I graduated and went off into industry we kept in touch. That was such a pivotal part of getting me to where I am now because he takes that extra step for his students. We’re not just numbers on a list with Patrick; we’re people. His mentorship has been invaluable. The fact that I ultimately had the opportunity to take over what he has created is really just incredible.”

WCA Credentialing: Practicing What You Teach
Madison College students are trained using advanced woodworking equipment. The 13,500-square-foot woodworking lab features a CNC machining center, edgebander, and a rough mill.

In addition, Madison College was an early adopter of incorporating the woodworking Skill Standards and Passport credentialing program administered by the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America. The college’s one-year program allows students the chance to earn their Sawblade Certificate and Green Credential.

Molzahn is intimately familiar with inner workings of the WCA programs. He was a founding member of the WCA Board of Directors and took an active hand in developing the WCA skill standards and Passport credentials. In 2018, Molzahn became the first person to earn the Diamond credential, the highest honor bestowed by the WCA.

Conley is busily aspiring to duplicate Molzahn’s achievement. Having already completed all requirements for her Sawblade Certificate, and Green, Blue, Red, and Gold Credentials, she is close to achieving her Diamond pin.

“Credentialing is an important thing for anyone who wants to be a leader in their industry,” Conley says. “It has been validating for me personally to go through these steps, especially considering that I’ve only been a woodworker for five or six years. The WCA’s credentialing system has allowed me to set my sights on achievements for building my own skills and backs up my woodworking abilities when communicating my skill levels to others. I think it’s a really good system to help our students transition from the educational environment to the industry where they can to continue to build on those skills throughout their careers.”

Molzahn notes, “While Lizzy says that being a woodworker for five years is a short time, I recall Greg Heuer telling me when we were developing the WCA Skill Standards that mastery in most professions requires about 10,000 hours, which translates to five years of experience. I think it’s kind of appropriate that Lizzy is approaching Diamond this early in her career, not that she won’t continue to grow her skills; she will. One of the exciting things about our craft is that you learn new things every day. It keeps you fresh.”

Completing the Transition
While Molzahn looks forward to an active retirement full of travel and woodworking, Conley plans to do her best to push Madison College’s Cabinet and Millwork program forward to meet industry’s needs for a skilled workforce.

 

“In January I’ll be going to Antarctica and South America,” Molzahn says. “I’m also looking forward to learning new languages and working on projects that I haven’t been able to do for years. I’m still passionate about my craft and am on the board of the directors of the Seth Peterson Cottage, which is the first Frank Lloyd Wright property that allowed overnight guests.

“I intend to sponsor a student for the Madison College program,’ Molzahn adds. “That will give me an excuse to come out a couple of times a year to see her and check up on the program.”

Conley says her first and foremost goal is to maintain the high-quality of curriculum and instruction that Molzahn created, while keeping the woodworking lab’s technology on the cutting edge and introducing ideas and concepts to grow the program.

“One of the things we are looking into is how to add more flexible scheduling into the program,” Conley says. “We have a lot of students who want to join the program but they also need to have a job or maybe they are a little later in life and have families to care for. One of my challenges is figuring out how we can make full-time, one-year program more accessible to get more students through the door while still making sure they are successful when they leave.”

She also has her sights on potentially adding finished carpentry and cabinet installation projects to the curriculum. “I’m just trying to think about what the industry’s needs are and making a few tweaks to meet those needs going into the future,” she says.

On another front, Conley says she plans to continue the important industry partnerships that she has inherited. She says she looks forward to attending the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas this July to network with machinery and supply representatives, as well as woodworkers attending the show.

“I wanted this transition to be successful, which is why it’s been more than two years in the making,” Molzahn says. “I haven’t spent 23 years building this nationally recognized program to see it disappear. I am confident that things will move forward and grow. I see it every day that Lizzy has brought in new ideas and new energy. and I see her continuing the systems I have established but also improving them, which makes me very proud. I’m looking forward to coming back and seeing the improvements she has made to grow the program.”

Learn more about the Madison College Cabinetmaking and Millwork Program.