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