CES Rome Sponsors SkillsUSA Competitions
City Electric Supply was proud to be part of the SkillsUSA Georgia contests in Rome, Ga., this year.
SkillsUSA is a national, non-profit student organization that has developed more than 10 million workers through active partnerships between employers, educators, and industry leaders.
Northwestern Technical College hosted two SkillsUSA Georgia contests on the Floyd County Campus and City Electric Supply helped sponsor the event and judge the competitions.
David Combs, Branch Manager of CES Rome, had the pleasure of judging and assessing the students’ electrical construction wiring contest. “We’ve been involved with the group for several years. They buy material from us and have these competitions several times a year,” Combs said
CES Rome provided the students with some low voltage materials. One of the students hung a satellite dish and run that course to the low voltage box.
Students Beck Maxwell, Jake Woodall, and Derek Walck presented a PLC-based candy machine for the competition. The machine they constructed helped determine the name of the candy that would be picked up.
Combs said when someone picked a piece of candy out, it could determine the name of the candy by its weight. So, the machine would know if someone picked a Baby Ruth chocolate or a Reese’s chocolate.
“To see a machine do all that, the students had to put a lot of time and effort into their project,” Combs said. “LED screens illuminated as the machine was processing and learning what the command was,” he added.
The state competitions and practice sessions held at GNTC were sponsored by CES, The Home Depot, and Greenlee tools. Judges for the competitions included David Combs from CES, Rayburn Electric, Berry College, and Southern Company.
“We help place students with contractors and help them find jobs. They are super excited about going to work while attending school so it’s a way for us to encourage them to pursue their dreams and careers,” Combs said.
Combs also added that CES Rome provides students with their first Klein Tools starter kit that includes pliers, meter, screwdrivers, and more, so that helps them to get started with their school studies.