Tyler Barnhouse, 17, a senior at Farmington High School, participated in the Skills USA diesel mechanic competition on Nov. 17 at San Juan College.
More than 170 students showcase automotive and diesel skills
Creating a skilled workforce, ready on Day One to work in the automotive and diesel mechanic industry this is what SkillsUSA is about.
Students arrived from across the Four Corners states of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah to compete in the regional SkillsUSA competition on Nov. 17 at San Juan College. The students, in both high school and college, spent the day going through a variety of technical-based stations to prove their abilities in both the fields of automotive technology and diesel mechanics.
“In automotive, we have 150 students,” said Donald Beauregard, automotive coordinator at the college.
The diesel program had 27 participants, according to Jason Hayes, diesel program coordinator at San Juan College. He also is the state office coordinator for SkillsUSA New Mexico.
“SkillsUSA has a mission statement to empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members, and they do that through a framework of personal skills, workplace skills and technical skills,” Hayes said, adding there are 17 different elements to the program.
Deion Sheppard, 24, is a San Juan College student, who participated in the Skills USA diesel mechanic competition Nov. 17 at San Juan College.
LaTavien Howard, 15, left, and Evan McKee, 15, right, participated in the Skills USA automotive competition Nov. 17, 2023, at San Juan College. Howard is a sophomore at Piedra Vista High School, and McKee is a sophomore at Farmington High School.
Loren Pharr, 16, of Hobbs, is a junior in high school and he participated in the Skills USA diesel mechanic competition Nov. 17 at San Juan College. He was the bronze medal winner in his category.
“Competitions like today are all about allowing those students to kind of showcase those skills that they’ve developed in their training programs by being involved with their Skills USA chapters,” Hayes said.
The students go through a series of rotations. There are 20 for the automotive technology competition and 10 for the diesel mechanic competition.
Some of the rotations are hands-on mechanical work, while others focus on “communication, adaptability, flexibility and all those other things that make a career ready individual,” Hayes said, adding there’s even mock interviews and written tests.
Hands-on diesel skills included doing an HVAC system, preventive maintenance inspection, diesel emission system, electrical systems, hydraulics, drive trains, steering, shop skills and air brakes, he said.
The auto mechanics portion included air conditions, transmissions, engines, brakes, steering and suspension. “We also do an electric vehicle, hybrid vehicle station, safety station and go along with those,” Beauregard said.
Each automotive rotation is eight minutes, while each diesel rotations is 10 minutes. “They’ve got to be able to do a lot of very, very compressed type stuff,” Hayes said, adding the purpose is to prepare students for a career, and it can become a component of the student’s resume.
“Going through an event like this it adds those kind of bits of flair to their application process,” Hayes said, adding students can point out “these are the extra things I did. I competed here. I competed there and with the students that do actually place then that takes that flare up one more level.”
Beauregard added that “it prepares them for leadership” in their field.
The San Juan College competition also helped the schools decide which students would progress to the state level competition. “With automotive it’s the top two students from each school. … With diesel it’s the top three students from each school move onto the state competition,” Hayes said.
From the state competition students will progress to a national competition in Atlanta, and San Juan College has taken quite a few students to nationals, according to Hayes, who said the college uses this competition as a way to showcase the facilities it has to offer.
“It’s a huge recruitment tool,” he said.
“This brings them all here and the students can see our facilities,” Beauregard said, adding the college still sends recruiters out, but it’s a different experience for students to see the facility firsthand and experience what it has to offer.
| Gold | Thomas Pipkin | San Juan College |
| Silver | Brandon Drury | San Juan College |
| Bronze | Tanner Marquez | San Juan College |
| Gold | Todd Wedel | Career Enrichment Center |
| Silver | Jesse Dicamillo | Technical College of the Rockies |
| Bronze | Camilo Munoz | Technical College of the Rockies |
| Gold | Andrew Stoner | San Juan College |
| Silver | Kyle Golding | San Juan College |
| Bronze | Shavonne Chee | San Juan College |
| Gold | Rylan Darnell | SJC High School |
| Silver | John Parker | SJC High School |
| Bronze | Loren Pharr | CTECH |
Beauregard said one thing San Juan College can offer through both the diesel and automotive technologies program is a guaranteed career in the field, because of a shortage of skilled technical workers.
There’s a huge, huge skills gap between the number of skilled trade jobs that are available and will be available in the next few years,” Hayes said.
“Even with all the schools across the nation training, we can cannot keep up,” Beauregard agreed.
Both men said the San Juan College program can help “put a dent” in that need for a skilled workforce and programs such as Skills USA help with that. They also help young students achieve high-paying jobs in a shorter amount of time.
The average salary for a student coming out of a two-year trade school program is around $45,000 with mechanics making upward of “six figures in both these industries” with five to six years, Beauregard said.
San Juan College’s program also offers students an opportunity to learn the electronics systems that are fully integrated into the automotive industry.
“The first tool that comes out of a technicians toolbox is the computer,” Hayes said.
“Our programs are called fast track because they can get the training in two years that would take them six to 10 years if they just hired on someplace and started sweeping floors on their way up,” Beauregard said, adding almost 80% of the students are trained to work at a dealership in two years, and they become a master technician in five years.
| Gadsden High School | Anthony, New Mexico |
| CTECH | Hobbs, New Mexico |
| Emery High School | Castledale, Utah |
| Carlsbad High School | Carlsbad, New Mexico |
| Technical College of the Rockies | Delta, Colorado |
| Career Enrichment Center | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Chaparral High School | Chapparal, New Mexico |
| Cate Center (FMS) | Farmington, New Mexico |
| San Juan College Automotive | Farmington, New Mexico |
| Utah State University | Logan, Utah |