Raymond supports SkillsUSA National Welding Fabrication Competition

This week, The Raymond Corporation is attending SkillsUSA in Louisville, Ky., from June 25-29, to help educate and encourage young talent to explore career paths in manufacturing.

As part of the 54th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference, more than 18,000 people — including students, teachers and business partners — will attend educational seminars to learn more about career options across various technical industries and participate in hands-on competitions that demonstrate their skills.

Raymond welding team leaders and technical trainers will facilitate and judge the welding fabrication competition taking place June 26-28. For this year’s competition, the SkillsUSA Championships Welding Fabrication Technical Committee designed a standard rocket stove rendering and gave the information and prints to competitors in advance of the event. As part of the competition, participants will be required to weld the specified rocket stove and conceptualize a collection box design that will serve as next year’s competition project. Participants will be graded on the rocket stove creation and the collection box design.

In collaboration with WaterStep, a nonprofit organization based in Louisville, the rocket stoves will be donated to third-world countries to provide individuals with an efficient and cost-effective way to heat and cook food.

“Raymond is thrilled to once again be participating in SkillsUSA to help teach the next generation about opportunities that exist within the material handling industry and help shrink the skills gap,” said Dan Quiter, welding trainer, Raymond. “We will have recruiters onsite to meet with students interested in learning more about available technician positions across Raymond-affiliated companies nationwide.”

The Raymond Virtual Reality Simulator, a supplemental tool to assist in the development of new and existing forklift operators, also will be available during the conference for students to experience. This 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 material handling industry face today.

To further show its support for this event, Raymond Storage Concepts, Inc., an authorized Raymond Sales and Service Center with a location in Kentucky, donated 10 forklifts to SkillsUSA to help with conference preparation and logistics.