Raymond supports workforce development at SkillsUSA 2019

This week, The Raymond Corporation is supporting SkillsUSA in Louisville, Kentucky, from June 24 to 28, to help educate and encourage young talent to explore career paths in manufacturing and technical fields. As part of the 55th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference, more than 6,500 outstanding career and technical education students –– all state contest winners –– will compete in hands-on competitions in over 100 various trade, technical and leadership fields.

Raymond welding team leaders and technical trainers will facilitate — and several will help judge — the welding fabrication competition taking place June 25 to 27. For this year’s competition, participants will be required to weld a shoe donation collection box based on design renderings from last year’s student competitors. Similarly, this year’s competitors will conceptualize a design that will serve as next year’s competition project. Participants will be graded on the shoe donation collection box and the design for next year.

In collaboration with WaterStep, a nonprofit organization based in Louisville, the shoe collection boxes will be donated across the country to enable shoe collection, which helps fund their clean water initiatives in countries around the world.

“Participating in SkillsUSA is very important to us at Raymond, as it allows us to directly connect with students from across the United States providing them with industry insights they may never have learned on their own,” said Dan Quiter, welding trainer, Raymond. “We are proud to be a part of creating the next generation of welding and manufacturing workers and help further shrink the skills gap and inspire young talent.”

Raymond and its authorized Sales & Service Center, Raymond Storage Concepts, Inc., will have representatives onsite to meet with students at Raymond booth S13 in the SkillsUSA TECHSPO Trade Show. The award-winning Raymond Virtual Reality Simulator will be on-display for students to experience. The VR Simulator is a supplemental learning tool to assist in the development of new and existing forklift operators. This innovative virtual reality instructional tool is another way the company aims to attract new talent to the industry and help address the labor shortage that many companies in the warehousing and distribution industry face today. On Friday, July 28, Raymond representatives will participate in the SkillsUSA Meet the Employer Day event, where they will be available to talk with students about positions spanning a variety of disciplines, including a number of technician positions at Raymond authorized Sales and Service Centers around the United States.

To further show its support for this event, Raymond Storage Concepts, Inc. donated six Raymond forklifts to SkillsUSA to help with conference preparation and logistics.