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Telecommunications Cabling Championships at SkillsUSA Sponsored by ETA

ETA® International recently sponsored the Telecommunications Cabling Championships for the 14th year in a row at the 55th annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, KY. The competitions showcase the best career and technical education students in the nation with this year’s theme: Champions at Work - Job-Ready Day One.

Greencastle, July 18, 2018: ETA International continues to sponsor the National Telecommunications Cabling Championship at SkillsUSA to reward students for excellence, to involve industry in directly evaluating student performance, and to keep training relevant to employers’ needs. The Tcom Cabling Championship is unique to SkillsUSA and utilizes many of the competencies and hands-on skills that comprise ETA’s Data Cabling Installer (DCI) and Customer Service Specialist (CSS) certifications.

The T-com Cabling contestants are high school and post-secondary students interested in voice and data network cabling and installation who excelled at their local and state competitions. ETA applauds the six contestants who took home gold, silver and bronze medals!

Secondary: Gold – Donovan Tames, Blackstone Valley RVTHS, Upton MA; Silver – Mason Brown, Paso Robles High School, Paso Robles CA; Bronze – Hunter Casteel, Dennis Technical Education Center, Boise ID.

Post-Secondary: Gold – Jacob McGonigle, Tennessee College of Applied Tech-Crossville, Crossville TN; Silver – Gavin Ginn, North Central Kansas Tech College, Beloit KS; Bronze – Steven Casimir, Orange Technical College - Mid-Florida Campus, Orlando FL.

Contestants demonstrate skills in fiber and copper cable termination, pulling and mounting cable, patch panel installation and termination, installing jacks, cable testing and troubleshooting, and providing customer service. Both copper and fiber optics cable are represented and contest stresses safety in all activities. Industry indicates 80 percent of the problems in computer networks, security systems installations and others are caused by cabling connector issues and not computers, servers, switches, etc. This competition tests to worldwide industry standards related to cabling for data and voice connections, physical and logical networks and signal transmission.

The contests are planned by the Skills Technical Committee and designed to test the aptitude needed for successful entry-level performance in the field. The National Education Team and the Technical Team from industry developed the Tcom Cabling Championships content, built and set up the rotation areas as well as conducted both the orientation and competition. All contests are run with the help of industry, trade associations, and labor organizations, while test competencies are set by industry.

National technical and educational committees for Telecommunications Cabling Championship: Co-Technical Chairs Bill Phelps, Dymo (WA) and Teresa Maher, CSS, ETA International (IN); Dede Starnes, Corning Optical Communications (NC); Richard Darnell, retired (UT); and Brandon Crump and Jeff Swaringen, both with Stanly Community College (NC).

ETA gives special thanks to the Telecommunications Cabling Championship judges: Jim Steele, CETma, Amatrol (IN); Wayne Rager, Bland Technologies (KY); Bryan Little and Mark Damiter, both with Corning Optical Communications (NC); Richard Darnell, retired (UT); Richard Booth, Empire High School (AZ); and Paul Neukam, FOSP, SiteWise Systems (IN).

Including the T-com judges, supporters and contributors to the T-comm Cabling Championship come from departments of public instruction, community colleges, proprietary training groups, and companies such as ETA, Dymo, Corning Optical Communications, CWA, Panduit, Fluke Networks, Cisco, Greenlee Tools, IDEAL Tools, International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE), Kobalt Tools, Light Brigade, Keysight Technologies, Southwire, Milwaukee Tools, Wiley Publishing, Bland Technologies, Klein Tools and BICSI.

About ETA - Since 1978, ETA has delivered over 200,000 certification examinations successfully. Widely recognized and frequently used in worker job selection, hiring processes, pay increases, and advancements, ETA certifications are often required as companies bid on contracts. ETA’s certifications are personal and travel with the individual, regardless of employment or status change and measure competencies of persons, not products or vendors. All ETA certifications are accredited through the International Certification Accreditation Council (ICAC) and align with the ISO-17024 standard. www.etai.org .

About SkillsUSA - SkillsUSA is a vital solution to the growing U.S. skills gap. This nonprofit partnership of students, instructors and industry ensures America has the skilled workforce it needs to stay competitive. Founded in 1965 and endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education, the association serves more than 300,000 member students and instructors each year in middle schools, high schools and colleges. This diverse talent pipeline covers 130 trade, technical and skilled service occupations, the majority STEM-related. More than 600 corporations, trade associations, businesses and labor unions actively support SkillsUSA at the national level. www.SkillsUSA.org

Download this press release at – www.etai.org /pr/Telecommunications_Cabling_Championships_at_SkillsUSA_Sponsored_by_ETA.pdf