In our work, it’s not every day we get to affect the next generation of technology students. That’s why when InterWorks was called upon to help judge the 2017 SkillsUSA Web Design competition, the Orion Team gladly stepped up.
About SkillsUSA in Oklahoma
First, a little background on SkillsUSA in Oklahoma. SkillsUSA has 12,865 members (3500 alumni) in Oklahoma alone. These members compete in nearly 100 different competitions across a range of technical disciplines ranging from cosmetology to HVAC repair.
SkillsUSA introduced the Web Design competition in 2008. Since it’s inception, Oklahoma has not had a medal winner nationally. The closest was a fourth place finish out of 29 teams from various states. This year’s groups aimed to change that.
This Year’s Web Design Competition
SkillsUSA is all about building a talented and skilled workforce of tomorrow. This was demonstrated as each team of two is given a design brief and few resources. They then must build a multi-page website from the ground-up in less than seven hours. The site is judged on design, usability, accessibility and, at minimum, one scripting challenge.
There’s more. Imagine disconnecting your internet—no online resources, no texting, no calls for help. And no, you can’t piggyback off any framework or outside libraries. That means no drag-and-drop features to generate code of any sort. Now you are in their shoes. Ready, set, go!
The Deliberation Process
We judged sternly, for the team’s next stop would be Nationals. Don’t worry, we didn’t just crush their souls; we spent extra time explaining where they can improve and how they can step up their game. Seeing their eyes light up, the lightbulbs turning on and their eagerness to get back to the computers to build on their skills was the inspiring reward we got back.
Heading to Nationals this year are Gavin Dunn and Jonathan Marshall (pictured below) of Travis Tracy’s Web Design/3D Design program at EOC Technology Center! A big congratulations to them for their hard work, and a job well done to all of the talented teams from this year’s competitions. We were honored to be a part of it.
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