MTEC to do in-school skills competition this week
Feb. 21—Don Robinette was doing some yelling Tuesday afternoon at the Monongalia County Technical Education Center, but it wasn't because he angry.
He was endeavoring to make himself heard.
"Just let me step out for a second, " he said. "It gets just a little noisy in here."
It could be claimed, in fact, that Robinette just might have the loudest lesson plan at MTEC.
He teaches welding at the tech center on Mississippi Street, with all the requisite clangs, rattles and chonks — and more clangs, rattles and chonks — included. His classroom is a working shop floor.
Robinette's students learn the basics of industrial welding, and they also get to unleash their creativity with heavy metal sculptures when the lesson plan or competition calls for it.
Thursday and Friday, MTEC will be abuzz with the frequency of all its students from all its disciplines linking up for its traditional in-skills competition judged by members of the business community.
All of the above includes all the hands-on stuff and the other getting-hired tangibles too, such as mock-job interviews and speaking in public.
Students don't get off easy there.
That part of the proceedings include the delivery of prepared remarks to the judges — and then turning around and giving on-the-fly talks and demonstrations of, say, welding techniques in Robinette's class.
"We always enjoy watching our students when they talk, " the welding instructor said. "That's when the knowledge really comes out."
He's not bragging — but three of his students were offered jobs on the spot during last year's event by a judge representing a commercial firm that employed welders.
Employment is the watchword, MTEC's director Greg Dausch said.
Students here learn how to make a cherry pie or operate a plasma cutter. They can run a restaurant or write computer code.
They learn everything about healthcare or home construction.
And, they get hired. MTEC graduates working in the trades industry have been known to go directly from the job site to their commencement ceremony — because they've already been hired.
Which means they're already earning a paycheck, Dausch said.
"We're proud of them, " the director said. "They go out and they do good work."
Learning a viable trade, and being able to make a living wage doing it, is more critical than ever these days in the Mountain State, say the pundits who watch education and labor trends here.
By 2030, those watchers say, 60 % of state residents will need secondary training of some sort to be able to compete in the job market.
And currently, less than 50 % of West Virginia's high school graduates are going on to traditional four-year colleges.
The year 2030 is also when Mon's district wants to have a new standalone high school built exclusively for STEM — the science, technology, engineering and math pursuit that the above are keenly observing.
Courses at the current tech center, in turn, would be retooled for middle school instruction.
Visit https://mtec.mono.k12.wv.us / for more information on MTEC's offerings.
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