Southwest Georgia students show what they can do at 2024 Skills Challenge

MOULTRIE – For those wondering where the jobs are, the answer is in the bathroom … or the laundry room … or on a vacant lot where a home is slated for construction.

Jobs in plumbing, electrical, carpentry, masonry and welding are in high demand, and on Thursday students from southwest Georgia high schools showed off their talents with those skills during the South + Southwest Georgia Workforce Development Alliance’s 2024 Skills Challenge.

Some 265 students from more than 30 counties participated in the seventh of the eight regional competitions, with the winners moving on to state competition. Winners in the skill categories will move on to the State Leadership and Skills Competition in February.

The school teams also competed in blueprint reading and team-building.

Lee County High School seniors Phong Lam and Dylan Arnold were among those competing in the electrical competition.

“I’ve just always been fascinated with electrical,” Arnold said. “If I can make a buck off it, why not?”

Both said they are planning to pursue careers in electrical engineering after graduating this year.

“We’re hands-on; we like being hands-on,” Lam said. “We don’t like sitting around at a desk. We like being out there working.”

Skill jobs offer several advantages: They’re high-paying, and parents and students won’t run up massive student loans as would be the case for college, Michael Dunham, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of Georgia, said.

The ACG partnered with JCI Contractors of Moultrie to host the event at the Sunbelt Ag Expo grounds on Thursday.

Signs placed at the event displayed what kind of pay is available for some of the jobs showcased at the challenge, with plumbing at $35.25 an hour, or up to $73,320 per year.

Plumbing job openings are expected to grow by 6% from 2023 to 2033, faster than the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 43,300 openings for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters are projected each year, on average over that decade.

“Electricians can make six figures with any amount of overtime,” Dunham said. “Plumbers can make in the high $20s (an hour) and above. You can go anywhere, and when you arrive you’ll have work.”

Several of the competitors had parents along watching them in action.

“Parents are beginning to learn there may be something different, something better,” Dunham said. “One mom last year watched her son do plumbing for two hours.”

The skills on display are also vital to residents’ lives and the state’s economy, he said, adding, “Like I said during my comments, that $7.2 billion (Hyundai) plant over there close to Savannah, they won’t produce a single car until construction people build the building.”

Also among those at the Moultrie event was Conner Mullen, who finished second in the 2024 SkillsUSA national competition in the welding sculpture category.

A bad day during competition in high school welding, which kept him out of the 2023 Skills Challenge, resulted in his pursuing the artistic side of welding.

Although he didn’t place in 2023, he won the silver this year and is looking to return to the competition in 2025.

“For some reason, I got into sculpture and won the state the first year (2023),” said Mullen, who is pursuing welding at Southern Regional Technical College in Tffton and said he plans to take EMT classes at night.

“The main thing I would say to them (competitors) is to keep at it, even if you lose,” Mullen said. “The reason I got into sculpture is because I lost somewhere else. Secondly, you’ve got to communicate with people. Networking is important.”

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
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Alan Mauldin
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