Support the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America’s workforce development initiatives and reap multiple promotional benefits by becoming a WCA Industry™ Supporter. Affordable sponsorship opportunities begin at $250.
Twenty-five convicted felons at the state maximum correctional center in Warren, ME, are participating in a pilot program with the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America. Each of the inmates was recently issued a WCA Passport to document his woodworking skills, setting him on a path for a fresh start upon his reentry into society.
The 25 new passport holders, each slated to be released within the next eight years, are among 140 inmates who work in the prison’s woodworking shop. There they learn about woodworking procedures and how to operate standard machinery including tables saws, planers, sanders and table top routers.
“All but about 30 of the inmates in our program are going to be released at some point,” said Ken Lindsey, industries manager, of Maine State Prison. “We want to train them so that they have good machinery skills. But we also want to work on their people skills to make sure they get along with others and are able to take direction from the staff. That’s a big part of the rehabilitation process.”
To get the program rolling, Greg Larson, director of the New England School of Architectural Woodwork and a member of the WCA Board of Directors, visited the prison to certify two inmates as WCA accredited skill evaluators. They in turn are responsible for testing individual inmates on specific woodworking and machinery skills. The individual is awarded a passport “stamp” for each test he passes. Through the combined accumulation of skill stamps and hours working in the woodshop, the passport holder can earn his WCA professional credentials that progress from Green to Diamond.
A Self-Supporting Enterprise
Lindsey and members of the woodshop staff are all former guards. Other Maine State Prison industry programs under Lindsey’s purview include upholstery, a machine shop, finishing and a plate shop which among other products makes license plates.
The woodshop is about the size of a football field. It contains more than 7,000 tools, a lot to keep track of in a prison environment, Lindsey noted. Among the newest machinery in the shop are five SawStop table saws and five SawStop contractor saws. “We really want to step it up and make things safer for the inmates and the staff,” Lindsey said.
Most of the products made in the woodshop are crafted from pine and ash lumber harvested, milled and dimensioned to final size by convicts at the Charleston Correction Facility, located about two hours north of Warren. The Warren inmates craft everything from novelties like ship models and jewelry boxes through larger furniture items such as bookcases and cupboards.
Eighty percent of the products are stained and sealed. They are by and large sold through a retail showroom in Thomaston. The showroom is a popular tourist destination during the summer and does about $1.6 million in annual sales.
“We are primarily a self-supported program with the exception of a couple of staff salaries,” Lindsey said. “Everything we have in the shop – machines, materials, tools – and inmates’ pay comes out of what we sell at our store in Thomaston. There are very little tax dollars spent on this program.” Lindsey added that the shop’s annual sales could be far greater if not for interstate commerce laws that prohibit sale of the prison shop’s products across state lines.
WCA Passport Pride
“The 25 guys who were chosen are proud to be in the passport program because they know it can help them,” Lindsey said. “If you are an ex-inmate, the job market can be tough. That can be one strike against you. But if you have the passport, when you apply to a woodworking company they will judge you more on whether you can handle a piece of machinery or can start day one as a productive worker than on whether you served time.”
“It’s too bad we didn’t know about the WCA sooner,” Lindsey added. “We have guys who get released with 10, 15 or more years of working in the woodshop for six to seven hours a day, five days a week. They have spent a lot of time on a variety of machines.”
Because of their years of experience working in the woodshop, Lindsey said the initial 25 passport holders should be able to quickly accumulate skill stamps. “They’ll breeze through the accreditation process of the different machines they have operated,” he said.
Lindsey said he is excited to watch the budding passport program grow and branch out. “We wanted to start off a little small and work the bugs out,” Lindsey said. “We’re constantly bringing in new workers so we’ll have no problem adding more inmates to the program. I know our central office in Augusta is watching behind the scenes to see how well this works. If it takes off here they may move it to some of the smaller woodshops at our other state prisons.”
“A lot of guys in our program messed up one time. They realize what they did was wrong,” Lindsey said. “After they do their time and get out they’re older and more mature. They are ready to move on with their lives and support their families. Hopefully the passport will help them have a living wage and an opportunity to do something they enjoy.”
The champion of woodworking skill standards recognized throughout North America updates its website to better serve the industry’s need for workforce development.Nellysford, VA – The Woodwork Career Alliance of North America (WCA), celebrating its 10th anniversary as the champion of woodworking skill standards, is pleased to announce the relaunch of WoodworkCareer.org. The newly redesigned website has been reorganized and updated to make it easier for woodworking professionals, suppliers and educators to access information about the WCA skill standards, allied credential passport program and other valuable employee training tools and resources.
“We’ve added so much information and so many new features to the website since its launch that it was definitely time for a reboot,” said Scott Nelson, president of the WCA. “By freshening the design and tightening up the site map, the website is now much easier to navigate.”
WoodworkCareer.org features detailed information about the WCA’s Woodworking Skill Standards and credential Passport program that are recognized throughout the North American woodworking industry. Separate pages have been developed for each of the WCA’s core membership groups, including:
• EDUcation™ – Learn how secondary and postsecondary woodworking programs can benefit from subscribing to the WCA.
• MANufacturing – Learn how woodworking companies can use the WCA Skills Standards and Passport program to train and incentivize employees.
• INDustry™ Supporter – This new membership category opens up WCA participation to manufacturers and distributors of woodworking machinery and supplies. The $250 annual subscription goes toward helping defray the cost of the student credentialing process and student passports.
• Student – Learn about the WCA credentialing process, the gateway to a rewarding woodworking career.
• Employee – Learn how the cloud-based WCA Passport program can help you distinguish yourself and grow your earning potential as you develop new machine skills.
Since it was chartered as a 503c non-profit in 2007, the WCA has developed Skill Standards for more than 240 woodworking machines and operations and issued nearly 1,600 individual skill credential passports. The standards and passports are recognized by educational institutions and woodworking companies operating throughout the United States and Canada. The overarching goal of the WCA is to develop and grow the industry’s workforce by creating pathways for woodworkers to advance their careers and incomes as they learn new skills.
Learn more about Woodwork Career Alliance membership and the WCA Skill Standards and Passport program at the new www.WoodworkCareer.org.
###
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 240 woodworking machine operations. In addition, WCA has issued more than 1,600 Passports, a portable, personal permanent record documenting each holder’s record of achievements as a woodworking professional. More than 165 high schools and post-secondary schools throughout North America are WCA EDUcation™ members. To learn more about the WCA, how to get involved with its programs or to sign up to receive the quarterly WCA Pathways e-newsletter, visit www.WoodworkCareer.org.
AWFS 2017 was a very busy and successful show for the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America. We signed up four new schools for the 2017-2018 school year, three new MANufacturing™ members and obtained leads for an additional half-dozen MANufacturing members at the show in Las Vegas.
WCA was also presented a check for $751 at the AWFS Fair from Vero Software from the sale of a custom T-shirt. This donation followed $2,740 raised during a silent auction in April at the Woodworking Industry Conference organized by the Woodworking Machinery Industry Association and the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America. Both of these generous donations will benefit our Education Fund.
Whenever possible please support and recognize these outstanding industry supporters of WCA’s educational efforts.
In this edition of Pathways, WCA proudly announces the launch of its redesigned website: www.woodworkcareer.org. This is just our second generation of the website and I think you will find it more pleasing to the eye and easier to navigate. Please visit the site and let us know what you think.
In launching the website, I am also pleased to note that we have revised some of our membership categories. We have changed the name of our INDustry Member to MANufacturing Member and have added the category of INDustry™ Supporter. The INDustry Supporter category provides a way for manufacturers and distributors of woodworking machinery and supplies and other industry stakeholders to support the WCA. We have many schools and students who want to participate in the WCA credentialing program that have financial limitations preventing them from doing so.
Your yearly INDustry Supporter subscription will help defray the program cost for the school of your choice. If you do not have a particular school in mind that you want to help, your $250 annual subscription will go to a general fund to help schools and/or students in need of a helping hand.
INDustry Supporters will also have the opportunity to take advantage of our new sponsorship packages. Each sponsorship package – Bronze, Silver and Gold – comes with a progressively greater number of perks that will help the sponsor stand out in the marketplace as a supporter of the WCA and workforce development. Click here to learn more WCA sponsorship opportunities.
I hope everyone has a great Holiday Season!!!
Scott Nelson
President
Woodwork Career Alliance of North America
snelsonwca@gmail.com
Vero Software Marketing Manager Paul Losavio is flanked by Patrick Molzahn and Scott Nelson of the WCA.
Vero Software of Tuscaloosa, AL, presented a $751 check to the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America during the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas.
Vero, whose programs include Cabinet Vision and Alphacam, was joined the Woodworking Network and the Architectural Woodwork Institute in sponsoring a limited edition “I Love Woodworking” T-shirt. The proceeds will help fund WCA programing.
“Education is absolutely vital to the success of the future of wood manufacturing,” said Paul Losavio, marketing manager for Vero. “The WCA is a great organization working to meet the educational needs of the industry and we are ecited to offer our support by raising money through this fun T-shirt fundraiser.”
“Vero Software has been a great supporter of the Woodwork Career Alliance,” said WCA President Scott Nelson. “We are very appreciative of the company’s many financial contributions to the cause of developing a skilled woodworking workforce.”
Matthew Shiplett, with his award-winning Cherry blAwesome table is flanked by fellow Cedar Ridge High School students Russell Quade, left, and Colin Davis. All three proudly wear their WCA-logo shirts.
Students representing two Woodwork Career Alliance EDUcation institutions were rewarded for their design talents at the 2017 AWFS Fair in Las Vegas.
Matthew Shiplett of Cedar Ridge High School in Cedar Ridge, NC, took first place honors in the High School Table category of the Fresh Wood Student Design Competition and Kyle Hassett, a student of Dale Jackson Career Center in Lewisville, TX, finished second in the High School Case Goods category.
Shiplett’s Cherry blAwesome wowed the five-member judging panel earning him the $1,000 first place prize. Hassett won $500 for finishing second with his Symphony of Contrast case goods.
A total of 195 designs were entered by students in the U.S. and Canada for the biennial design contest organized by the Association of Woodworking and Furnishing Suppliers.
Sixty-four students, including 44 state high school winners and 20 state college winners, competed in the 2017 Cabinetmaking competition of the 53rd Annual SkillsUSA National Leadership Conference held June 19-23 in Louisville, KY.
The Cabinetmaking contest was organized by the Architectural Woodwork Institute (AWI) and supported by the Woodwork Career Alliance (WCA). The WCA was represented by students of two postsecondary institutions and six high schools in this year’s competition – all winners of their state competitions. Included were students from Eastern Maine Community College of Bangor ME, and Washburn Tech of Topeka, KS. WCA EDUcation high schools that sent students included Saint Johnsbury Academy of Saint Johnsbury, VT; Dale Jackson Center of Lewisville, TX; Oswego High School of Oswego, IL; West Montgomery High School of Mount Gilead, NC; Macfarland High School of Macfarland, WI; and Peyton High School of Peyton, CO.
In addition, Andrew Dearing a student at Utah Valley University in Orem, UT, and an AWI Education Scholarship recipient, was a top 10 finisher in the postsecondary competition
Cabinetmaking was just one of 98 trades contested during SkillsUSA. Even a small sampling of the staged competitions makes clear the wide range of skills displayed including 3D printing, carpentry, crime scene investigation, nail care, robotics and web design.
Among the more than 15,000 people competing or attending the event were Kristine Cox, president of the AWI, and Kent Gilchrist, past president of AWI and technical chairman of the SkillsUSA Cabinetmaking competition.
Through her affiliation with the Carolinas Chapter of AWI, Cox has been actively involved with SkillsUSA in her home state of North Carolina for nearly 10 years. Other AWI chapters that participate on their state or regional level include Great Lakes, Heart of America, Iowa/Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio Valley, Texas and Wisconsin.
This year’s Cabinetmaking competitors were required to manufacture a nightstand from a supplied design and materials. Students not only had to be able to read the drawings, they had to develop cut lists; cut and fabricate all of the parts using a table saw, laminate trimmer, hand drill, hinge boring machine and various hand tools. The parts also had to be sanded, assembled and adjusted to tolerances specified by the judges.
“The projects that the kids do today are multiple times more complex than what they were five or more years ago,” Gilchrist said. “This year we introduced angled sides and angled dado joinery. This not only increased the complexity of assembly, but also the challenges of preparing the cut list and machining the parts. What’s really great is that we have seen school instructors really step up their games year after year to help prepare their students to meet these challenges.”
Why SkillsUSA Matters
SkillsUSA has grown to include 395,000 members, including students, advisors and industry partners. Putting on the annual national competitions represents about a $36 million industry investment, including about $250,000 for cabinetmaking. In addition to helping elevate the trades through the National Leadership Conference, SkillsUSA is a strong advocate of career and technical education on state and national levels.
“One thing for me, especially on the state level, it that I’ve learned not only to talk from the mountaintop to these kids that we have jobs but that we have good careers in this industry,” said Cox. “Getting involved in SkillsUSA gives us an opportunity to also get in front of parents, teachers and guidance counselors. Hopefully we’ll get the message out and all concerned will know that woodworking is a viable industry for a career and there is good money to be had. Until parents recognize that this is a viable career path, they are going to push their kinds into the path of a four-year college. But what’s good for some is not good for all.”
“I think it’s important for our industry to see that career and technical education is not a dying breed,” Gilchrist said. “It’s important not just from the perspective of cabinetmaking but for CTE as a whole. The SkillsUSA National Leadership Conference shows that there are so many students who are interested in the trades. That’s not to say that many of these kids won’t be going to college, but many may come back to the trades in a management position.”
“I talk up SkillsUSA whenever I can,” Cox added. “My father was deeply involved with Boy Scouts and just like an Eagle Scout there’s a certain expectation of demeanor and character that comes with a student being involved in SkillsUSA. If I have two candidates for a job in my shop and they are equal on everything but one of them has a SkillsUSA involvement, automatically that person goes to the top my list because I know that person not only has the hard skills and craftsmanship I’m looking for, but also has critical thinking and problem solving skills that gets taught through SkillsUSA.”
“I usually bring up SkillsUSA when I’m talking to someone who says that there is no skilled labor,” Gilchrist said. “Then I’ll ask, ‘Do you know about SkillsUSA?’ Like Kristine said, these kids have certain attributes for employment that transcend a specific skill. I encourage them to find and reach out to their state director and not to limit themselves to only looking at cabinetmaking programs. Some schools have architectural technology, carpentry or welding programs where kids learn skills that you can cross train into our industry. This is a good jumping off point to develop a relationship.”
Learn more at SkillsUSA.org.
Kent Gilchrist is not an evangelist; he’s a woodworker. Still he is passionate about woodworking education and training and fervent in his belief that all sectors of the industry must come together to meet the long-standing challenge of developing and growing a skilled work force.
Gilchrist, owner of Fremont Interiors of Indianapolis, has been active in woodworking education and workforce development with the Architectural Woodwork Institute (AWI) for more than two decades, including serving as president of the AWI Education Foundation. For the past 10 years he has also served as chairman of AWI’s SkillsUSA Committee and is technical chair of the national SkillsUSA Cabinetmaking competition. In addition to his role as a member of the Woodwork Career Alliance’s (WCA) Board of Directors, Gilchrist recently was appointed director of business and workforce development by the WCA. In this latter capacity, Gilchrist is charged with rallying industry participation in the Skilled Labor and Workforce Development Coalition, a new initiative backed by the WCA.
At the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas, Gilchrist will take to the main stage of the show floor to deliver a special presentation to woodworking executives, “Workforce Crisis – Job One,” 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 19. The free session will explore the root causes of the skilled labor shortage; where to find woodworking candidates; and how to educate, train and retain current employees.
Gilchrist also will discuss the Skilled Labor and Workforce Development Coalition and how industry associations, manufacturers and suppliers can get involved to become part of the solution. These topics will carry over in one-on-one conversations with woodworkers, suppliers and educators throughout the four-day show.
Connecting the Dots
“We all know that we have a skills gap problem. That conversation has been worn out,” Gilchrist said. “What I plan to talk about at the show is our need to discover why we have a problem and realize that it’s different from state by state and region by region. To combat the problem we need to research where the career and technical education schools are, where the employees are and what jobs are available to build a better database of information and build better lines of communication. We haven’t done a very good job of communicating when it comes to discussing the skilled labor shortage with one another. You can talk to two shop owners who have problems finding help but they might be two very different problems. One might need a skilled bench person and the other might be looking for a CNC operator. That makes a significant difference in where you can find that kind of worker.
“We need more members of our industry to be aware, utilize and support their local high school and postsecondary schools, as well as job training and apprenticeship programs,” Gilchrist continued. “We also need to continue to get the word out about the WCA’s Woodworking Skill Standards and how woodworking companies can integrate them into their training programs.”
Gilchrist added that it’s also important for industry to work together to promote woodworking as a viable career opportunity not only to students but their parents. “Our industry has long suffered from a negative image as being backward and dead end. We need to get the word out about the new technologies that we are using on our shop floors and how today’s woodworkers can advance their careers and grow their incomes by increasing their skills.”
Now is the time to work toward enacting positive change, Gilchrist said.
“We need to put the days of moaning about not being able find good help behind us and start addressing the problem head on,” Gilchrist said. “Unless people in this industry step up and get involved it’s not going to change.”
As the opening of AWFS Fair in Las Vegas draws upon us, please remember to stop by our booth 9648! Let us show you how WCA’s Woodworking Skill Standards can help improve your school woodworking or company training program.
I am proud to announce that during the 2016-2017 school year we issued 185 certificates or credentials. We now have more than 1,560 WCA Passport holders across the U.S. and Canada.
One final housekeeping note: There’s still time to sign up for one of our Accredited Skill Evaluator (ASE) training sessions being held at the show. Just email snelsonwca@gmail.com or call me at 402-610-6043 to reserve your spot now and pay at our booth during the show. These ASE training sessions are being offered at a discounted rate through special arrangement with AWFS. The ASE training registration includes a one-year subscription in WCA – a $250 value – all for the low fee of $100. The purchase of a WCA Passport is required. If you don’t already have a Passport, you may purchase one for $55 at our booth.
Hope to see you next week @ AWFS Fair 2017!
Scott Nelson
President
Woodwork Career Alliance of North America