Kansas City, Mo. –The U.S. Department of Commerce published "Manufacturing In America: A Comprehensive Strategy to Address the Challenges to U.S. Manufacturers" in 2004. In that report, the lack of qualified labor was considered by some to be the biggest long-term challenge U.S. manufacturers face:

Chris Bollinger of Bollinger Shipyards Inc. said at a roundtable discussion in New Orleans that the biggest problem he could see was the lack of qualified labor. He indicated that this observation was true even during the recession that had recently ended. Bollinger expressed concern about what that meant as the manufacturing sector recovered, calling the lack of qualified labor "our biggest issue and our biggest . . . roadblock to continuing to grow."

The role of talent is critical to the future viability of America's manufacturing sector. The 2001 U.S. Competitiveness Report, published by the Council on Competitiveness and co-authored by Professor Michael Porter, stated that "the priorities for sustaining U.S. economic growth and competitiveness center on strengthening the nation's innovative capacity and skills of the American workforce." The report further stated that "the nation's ability to commercialize innovation — and further productivity growth — rests on the skills of its workers. But, the bar for skills is rising and demand for higher skills is outstripping supply." Higher-level skills are essential to enable productivity and commercialize innovation. Worker skills and education will be a dominant, if not decisive, factor in America's ability to compete in the global economy.

On June 25th, more than 5,000 high school and college/postsecondary technical students enrolled in trade, technical and skilled service profession programs gathered in Kansas City to compete in the national-level 43rd annual SkillsUSA Championships. Every one of those competitors had already won their local, regional and state competitions and was there to see just who was the best of the best. They competed in one of 87 different contests, 57 of which were for skilled trades such as carpentry, cabinet making, plumbing, electrical wiring, precision machining and welding.

Welding contestants came from 43 states and were divided into high school and postsecondary groups. Competition started at 7:30 in the morning and lasted until 4:00 in the afternoon, and during that time the welders had to show their stuff in gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding and oxyfuel welding, in addition to reading blueprints and doing fundamental measurements. Every piece of work that each competitor did was carefully judged by a group of industry professionals, and at the end of the competition, the top three point scorers were awarded gold, silver or bronze championship medals. They also earned the right to compete against the best in the world at the international championships in Japan later this year… If they can raise the money to pay for the trip.

The federal government spends millions of dollars researching and publishing documents explaining how critical vocational education and worker skills are to the future of the U.S economy. Care to guess how much they spent supporting the national SkillsUSA competition?

In addition to the study, practice and desire it takes to become a state champion, all of the contestants had to raise the money it costs to compete – travel, lodging, food, uniforms, etc. So did more than 500 volunteer judges and more than 550 volunteer technical committee members. The 850 computers, 50 trucks, 9,500 bricks, 1,500 blocks, 60 stoves, complete laboratories and testing facilities for machining, welding, auto repair, plumbing, etc., more than 6,000 lunches served to the competitors and judges, and even the $120,000 electricity bill are all paid for by cash and in-kind donations from private individuals and corporations.

There was, however, one government prize: the winners of the precision machining competition got a one-week all-expenses-paid trip to Switzerland… paid for by the Swiss government.