Carbon Career and Technical Institute hosted a Welding and Precision Machining Competition at its campus in Jim Thorpe on Nov. 14.

Students and instructors from Lehigh CTI, Monroe CTI, Bethlehem AVTS, Lackawanna CTC, Upper Bucks CTC, Hazleton Career Center and CIT of Northampton County all participated in the day of team building and competition.

The career and technical students worked on projects related to those skills they utilize in their trade and technical field and hone in on the skills needed to compete in the upcoming Skills USA District Competition.

“I want to prepare the students for the upcoming welding competitions in Skills USA and American Welding Society and push the students outside their comfort zone and challenge them a little,” said CCTI Welding Instructor Tom Bartholomew. “They all had a lot of fun and performed very well and the instructors are looking forward to next year when we run it again.”

The event was followed by a luncheon served by CCTI’s Culinary Department and an awards ceremony. Every student who competed received an award. The events were judged by business and industry reps and post-secondary reps.

“It was a great day of team building and rapport building among career and tech students from all over the state. It was great to see the excitement of the competitors and seeing student come together at CCTI,” said CCTI Administrative Director Brent Borzak.

“The event helped students properly conduct themselves as young machinists and also prepared them for real and practical competitions. This competition helps students by allowing them to compete against each other for the first time but also collaborate and help each other out along with instructors and our judges. When the students leave at the end of the day and left with something they learned from coming to the competition that means we were successful and are goal was reached,” said CCTI Precision Machine Instructor Kevin Kuehner.