Competitions
FCCLA Annual Student Contest
The Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a national non-profit organization focused on the promotion of personal growth and leadership development through Family and Consumer Sciences Education. The FCCLA has a contest, open to more than 225,000 members, mostly of high school age, in all 50 states. Each year, in March, students from New Jersey high schools meet to compete in Cherry Hill. Competition categories include bread baking, table setting, poster making, job interviewing, fashion design and business. The NJBBT supports the bread and cake decorating competitions in all grade levels, as well as providing judges for the conference.
NJ Skills
NJBBT is a sponsor of the Skills NJ annual contest. The state contest held in May brings trade school students from all over the state to compete. Winning students then go to the June national Skills USA competition in Kansas.
NJBBT:
- Sponsors the airfare for winning students.
- Provides the kitchens and judges for this prestigious student event. Allied member, Dawn Foods of Edison, N.J., supplies the food used in the contest.
- Sets the guidelines for the Skills NJ Baking Contest; with new formulas in the bread, muffin and cookie categories.
NJBBT also sponsored the bread and pastry competition at Skills, NJ. Members of NJBBT helped coordinate the competition and the members of the Allied Trades # 9 assisted with donations of product for use by the competitors.
Skills USA is a national non-profit partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled work force. Contests in building trades, auto mechanics, and cosmetology are also featured in the Somerset contest.
New Jersey Bakers sponsors participant in World Skills
NJ Skills winner Craig Growney will serve on TeamUSA and represent the United States in the 2009 WorldSkills Competition for Culinary Arts. Growney is a graduate of the Bergen County Academies, a two-time state champion and national gold medal winner for Culinary Arts is presently a student at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). After winning a run-off at the CIA, Craig joins an elite team comprised of students from various trades that will represent the USA. NJ Skills State Director Peter Carey said, "WorldSkills is the equivalent of the Olympics for SkillsUSA students, and only a select few have the opportunity to compete. I'm very proud of Craig's significant accomplishment, which is a testament to career and technical education, but more importantly a testament to his school, the Bergen County Academies and his advisors, MaryBeth Brace and John Branda."
To prepare for the competition, Craig will train at the CIA's training facility. In partnership with SkillsUSA, The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has established the SkillsUSA World Team National Culinary Training Center on its Hyde Park, NY campus. The CIA will provide technical expertise and educational resources for Craig as he represents the United States at next September's 2009 WorldSkills Competition in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
SkillsUSA is a member of WorldSkills - The International Vocational Training Organization headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Over its 50-year history, the WorldSkills Competition has come to symbolize the pinnacle of excellence in skilled trades and technologies training. Every two years, hundreds of young competitors from all over the world gather to compete in this international event. Over four days of competition, over 1,000 competitors drawn from 51 member countries/regions test themselves against tough international standards. The WorldSkills Competition sets world class standards in over 45 skill categories ranging from welding to cooking, auto body repair to landscape gardening, plumbing to web design.