Volvo Construction Equipment, along with its dealer Highway Equipment & Supply and customer Allan Myers, recently participated in the SkillsUSA Pennsylvania State Heavy Equipment Competition.
The event aims to encourage youth to pursue jobs in manufacturing and tested “top technical students” from across the state in operating equipment in nine categories
“As a leader in the construction equipment industry, it is very important for Volvo CE to support future generations of skilled workers,” says Chuck Wood, vice president, Human Resource Management and Administration for Volvo CE. “Competitions like this not only help students get excited about a future in our industry, but also help bridge the current skills gap.”
Wood says roughly 600,000 manufacturing jobs went unfilled in the U.S. in 2011, with the figure is expected to increase to more than two million in the next two years. “That’s a large gap and as a company, we are working hard to do our part to shrink that gap.”
SkillsUSA hosted the competition as part of the 2017 SkillsUSA Pennsylvania State Championships, with nine high school students participating in the heavy equipment competition. Students were given tasks to complete such as identifying components and controls, inspecting machines, writing a service summary and operating virtual bulldozers and excavators.
Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology student MacKenzie Stine scored gold, and Ethan Snyder and Sean McCabe from Lancaster County Career and Technology Center came in second and third place, respectively.
