MTC has three new national SkillsUSA champions, one qualifies for world competition

(Bradenton, FL—July 2, 2018)   Manatee Technical College has three new National SkillsUSA Champions, and one student who qualified to compete at the international level.

In the college division of the 2018 National SkillsUSA Championships, Nithinunt Panklib won the gold in Nail Care; Sean Martin took the bronze medal in Firefighting; and James Tarver won bronze in Plumbing.

MTC web development student Matt Vreman qualified to compete with the SkillsUSA WorldTeam in Web Design.  The biennial WorldSkills International Competition will take place in Russia in 2019.

The 2018 National SkillsUSA Championships took place in Louisville, Kentucky, June 24-29. This event, by invitation only, was for first place state medalists in 102 competition areas for career and technical education students.  It is the largest skill competition in the world.

Over 6,300 outstanding students from across the U.S. compete against each other and the clock, proving their expertise in over 100 trade, technical and skilled service occupations.  More than 600 corporations, trade associations, businesses and labor unions actively support SkillsUSA at the national level.

SkillsUSA is a vital solution to the growing U.S. skills gap.  It promotes excellence, employability skills and ethics to students in career and technical education to prepare them for successful careers.  The philosophy of the Championships is to reward students for excellence, to involve industry in directly evaluating student performance and to keep training relevant to employers’ needs. SkillsUSA is the largest career and technical student organization in the country.