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President’s Message: WCA EDUcation Membership Is Growing

WCA is ending the annual renewal process for all EDUcation members and I am happy to report that the renews are coming in at a very good rate. In addition, we have added 21 schools as EDUcation members,  plus two new woodworking companies to the ranks of our growing MANufacturing membership.

See the full list of all our newest members and sponsors.

WCA is also growing its roster of Accredited Skill Evaluators. We will be adding 20 new ASE teachers during training sessions at Montgomery County High School in Mt. Gilead, NC, on Oct. 24 and at Madison College in Madison, WI, on Oct. 25. These ASE instructors will be able to start evaluating students in their woodworking programs to earn WCA tool points toward earning their Sawblade Certificate.

What makes both ASE training sessions particularly timely is that we have articles related to the woodworking programs at Montgomery High School and Madison College in this edition of Pathways. I encourage all woodworking instructors to check out the article about the North Carolina Summer Career and Technical Education Conference. Dan Kern, WCA chief evaluator of North Carolina and an instructor at Montgomery High School, coordinated the woodworking workshops during the CTE conference.

The news item related to Madison College concerns Ethan Harrison who represented the U.S. in the WorldSkills woodworking competition in Kazan, Russia. Ethan honed his skills with instruction and encouragement from Jeff Molazhn, instructor at Madison College, who also happens to be an ASE.

Finally, I’d like to offer my personal congratulations to Richard Memory, apprentice woodworker at Jefferson Millwork & Design, for being the first professional to earn his WCA red credential. Jefferson Millwork has demonstrated its leadership as a WCA MANufacturing member by intertwining the WCA skill standards, credentialing program and financial incentives to reward employees like Richard who advance through the company’s training program. Bravo!

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