Hammering the Competition : Top Vocational Students Show Off Their Skills at Statewide Contest

The pressure had never been greater, the competition never so tough.

Eighteen-year-old William Bermudez faced 12 grueling tests over six hours. Stern-faced judges in white coats analyzed his every move. He could be disqualified just for talking to sideline observers.

Silently, at times with jittery hands, he tested atmospheric pressure sensors, precisely measured computer-graphic valve movements and inspected an electronic ignition module. For Bermudez, the competition was much more important than a mere win-or-lose contest: it was about his future.

“I know what I want to do with my life. I have a skill,” he said. “The fact that I am here means a lot to me and my parents. It means I am at the top of my field.”

That field is automotive service technology, and being at the top of it is not bad for a kid who once wanted to drop out of high school.

This past weekend, Bermudez, a North Hollywood High School senior who lives in South-Central Los Angeles, stood proudly with 500 of California’s most skilled students--carpenters, plumbers, diesel engine mechanics, hairstylists--for their moment of glory during the statewide Vocational Education Skills Olympics in Anaheim.

In an event that is to shop-class students what the popular academic decathlon is to their college-prep counterparts, the contest bestows unparalleled honor to participants.

Yet many have spent their high school years fighting stereotypes that vocational ed is the schooling of last resort for those who can’t hack the books.

“I plan to go to the Air Force Academy and become an electrical engineer,” said Karna Bushing, 16, who competed in the Applied Electronics competition by showing off her knowledge of circuit-board building. “I have a lot of friends who are lost because they don’t know what they want to do. But having a goal keeps me excited about school.”

The Skills Olympics is part of the annual conference for a national student organization called the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. VICA is like a Future Farmers of America club for auto mechanics and welders, among other trades, and aims to instill leadership training, skills development and a strong dose of good ol’ American work ethic in its young members.

After a nearly 12-year decline, courses in vocational education--which fell victim to the “back to basics” trends in the 1980s and later to budget-cutting as school boards were forced to eliminate electives--appear to be on the brink of a renaissance.

And for months, these students--mainly high school seniors--have been feverishly rebuilding car engines, nailing together the perfect cabinet, combing out hairdos and designing slick promotional bulletin boards in preparation for the 53 competitive events.

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During a Sunday morning ceremony at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel, punctuated by standing ovations and hearty slaps on the back, gold, silver and bronze medals were doled out to the most skilled pairs of hands in California.

The students consider themselves the craftsmen and women of the next century, the mechanics, the electricians, the wood framers, whose work will someday evoke the phrase: “They just don’t build ‘em like they used to.”

When your car engine inexplicably shuts down on the freeway . . . when you finally decide to install new kitchen cabinets . . . when the broken air-conditioner in your high-rise has made work insufferable, you will need professionals like Mark Rodgers from Ramona High School near San Diego, or Ernesto Diaz from East Los Angeles Occupational Center.

Along with the medals, the winners took home prizes such as a $1,000 Snap-on Tool chest or a De Walt Heavy Duty Router. Three of the gold medalists each earned a $10,000 scholarship to the prestigious Universal Technical Institute in Phoenix.

“My heart is going 1,000 miles an hour. This is it, my career is set,” said Tim Werbach, a senior from Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, the gold medal and scholarship winner in air conditioning and refrigeration repair.

Throughout the day Saturday, at 10 venues in Los Angeles and Orange counties, the contestants were put to the test.

The cabinetmakers were given 20 nails and a pile of wood to build a wall-mounted telephone holder. The cosmetologists had to demonstrate artistic flair as well as proper use of the curling iron. The residential electricians wired a wall of an imaginary house with outlets, plugs and sockets. The drafters had to sketch plans for binocular lenses, first on paper and then on a computer.

“These tests are the real world,” said Jerry Ruthman, owner of Hi-Tech Automotive Services in Sherman Oaks and a judge in the auto repair competition. “It amazes me the amount these kids know. It’s not like the old days, when you had to turn wrenches. You have to have brains to be successful now because of all the technology.”

The popularity of the competition and its ability to attract a wide variety of corporate sponsors reflect the growing national movement in education reform to better prepare high school students for the work force.

The growth in service-sector jobs, and the fast-paced technological advances in fields ranging from auto repair to drafting, have corporate America pressuring public educators to provide skilled workers.

The Clinton Administration has focused a large chunk of its national education agenda on the roughly 75% of students nationally who do not earn college degrees. Last month Congress approved landmark legislation to train high school students to enter the work force through a national apprenticeship program.

Despite the diversity of their trades, the vocational ed students at the Skills Olympics preach a common sermon when it comes to their success: that academics do matter in the real world.

Todd Murdoch, 17, a senior from Woodland High School near Sacramento, said he used the Pythagorean theorem to frame a roof in the carpentry competition.

“People who say shop class is for the idiots could never make it in a high-level wood shop,” Murdoch said. “You gotta know a whole lot of math.”

To be a customer-pleasing auto repair man, Jason Mohelski, from Fontana High School, said he needs to know more than just the intricacies of ignition timing. He has to know how to read computer printouts and write a grammar-perfect as well as math-perfect estimate.

As for the cries of employers who say kids these days can’t fill out a job application, let alone speak in complete sentences, the Skills Olympics is out to stifle that complaint with the Job Interview competition.

These contestants can confidently tell you about themselves, quickly detail where they want to be in five years, and eagerly describe their strengths and weaknesses.

But even the Job Interview competition had a trick question: If your car broke down minutes before you are supposed to be at work, what would you do?

The wrong answer is “call in sick.” The right answer:

“As quickly as possible I would call the office, tell my boss I’m going to be late and find another mode of transportation, maybe the bus,” replied gold medalist interviewee Angela Barley, 16, of Torrey Pines High School in San Diego.

Aspiring hairstylist Art Berber of East Los Angeles Occupational Center is convinced his French twist with an upsweep clinched him the gold--along with a prize of a cordless hair trimmer. He also knows the power of a haircut: one wrong snip can plunge a client into depths of despair.

“Hopefully this will open new doors for me,” said Berber. “I want to work in a busy salon and make people happy.”

Like his fellow auto repair students, John Raisty of Los Altos High School--the silver medalist in air-cooled gasoline engine repair--tackled the dreaded “Engine in a Box” competition.

An H35 Tecumseh engine was completely taken apart, its pieces literally shaken up in a cardboard box and then presented to contestants who had 91 minutes to put it back together and rev it up.

“My skill is complicated. I have to think clearly, figure things out,” he said, massaging motor oil into his bruised knuckles.

“People think that shop classes are just a place for people who don’t want to go to college, but these are not leisure classes . . . Everything has to be precise or it won’t work.”