Mark Carr turned his high school vocational technical training into a successful State Farm® career as an appraiser on the estimatics team in P&C Claims. Mark is a 23-year employee who began his automotive career installing windshields in a body shop. He worked his way up to a body tech position, foreman and then eventually as an auto estimator with State Farm.

Mark is telling his story of success to high school and college students who are preparing for careers in technical, skilled, and service occupations – including auto collision repair.

As part of the State Farm^® support of SkillsUSA, Mark is sharing in the mission to prepare students for success in a non-traditional educational environment. Taking a pathway other than a customary four-year college degree, Mark says skills training can, “open doors for new opportunities and financial reward.”

SkillsUSA is a nonprofit national education association with a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce.

It provides quality education experiences for students in leadership, teamwork, and citizenship and character development. It also provides training for career and technical education instructors to enhance their industry knowledge and teaching skills.

Chelle Travis, executive director of SkillsUSA, says, “State Farm has served as a strategic partner with SkillsUSA for 30 years. With the support of State Farm, SkillsUSA annually serves more than 20,000 career and technical education teachers, ensuring they have the most current technical skills and student engagement strategies to deliver the SkillsUSA mission on the local level.

“We appreciate State Farm for investing in these critical professionals who guide our students’ futures while helping to shape the future of our nation.”

For information on skilled and technical job opportunities at State Farm, please visit State Farm Careers.

Thanks to the support of State Farm, SkillsUSA will focus on instructor training that helps grow its local chapters. Instructors will receive the latest information and tools in employability skills training, leadership development and teaching strategies.

State Farm is supporting:

• SkillsUSA’s Engage training for teachers at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC) in June 2019
• Ongoing workshops on educational resources including the SkillsUSA Career Essentials suite, SkillsUSA’s flagship curriculum for middle school, high school, college/postsecondary and adult learners
• Materials and instruction at the 2019 Call to Action session, held exclusively for over 600 SkillsUSA instructors at the NLSC
• A teacher track during the Washington Leadership Training Institute in Washington, D.C., attended by SkillsUSA instructors from 28 states, in September 2019

In addition, SkillsUSA Championships supported by State Farm will include the 2019 Auto Refinishing, Collision Repair and Collision Damage Appraisal competitions, in which national competitors will test their skills against other students and the clock to industry standards for entry-level employees in these fields. State Farm support also includes a Prize Equity Fund for leadership events and a sector sponsorship for the transportation cluster at the national championships.

State Farm Insurance Companies, headquartered in Bloomington, Ill., has been a SkillsUSA supporter for 20 years with a total investment of over $2.8 million.

“SkillsUSA salutes State Farm for supporting our nation’s top career and technical education programs as we work to prepare career-ready students,” says SkillsUSA’s executive director, Timothy Lawrence. “SkillsUSA is a verified talent pipeline and skills gap solution that graduates 100,000 career-ready SkillsUSA students each year. Our organization lifts up and recognizes students and provides much-needed support for their teachers to ensure America has a future skilled workforce. We could not deliver our crucial mission without companies like State Farm working alongside us.”

“It is extremely important to have highly skilled technicians in body shops across the nation writing collision damage appraisals, repairing the vehicles and refinishing them,” says State Farm Senior Vice President, Property and Casualty Claims, Robert Yi. “The SkillsUSA Championships set industry standards for students and educators and help to ensure that students graduating into these professions possess the knowledge and skills to be successful in their craft.”

For more about the 2019 SkillsUSA Championships, visit: https://www.skillsusa.org/competitions/skillsusa-championships/.

For more information about SkillsUSA, contact:

• Jane A. DeShong Short, Program Manager, Public Relations/Communications, Phone: 703-737-0612
• Karen Kitzel, Program Manager, Public Relations/Communications, Phone: 703-737-0607

As Jose Martinez-Joya weaved his way through the enormous crowd gathered at Kemper Arena, he could hardly believe the announcer called his name. He won first place in the Automotive Refinishing Technology category at the National Leadership and Skills Conference. Walking to the podium, Jose thought of the incredible journey that led him to compete in the SkillsUSA championships.

Character Issues

Like many young people, Jose was not sure what he wanted to do in life. Fortunately, for Jose, his family assumed he would make his living working in the auto collision shop owned by his father and grandfather in Elgin, IL. Working alongside his brother, Jose would spend his days sweeping the shop, changing the occasional tire and learning the family business.

“Back then I had a lot of ‘character issues’,” Jose recalls. “I wasn’t humble enough to handle a lot of responsibilities.”

Jose obliged for a while, but after feeling unfulfilled working in the shop, he decided to pursue other career options. Jose’s father was disappointed in his decision to leave. He hoped Jose and his brother Angel would one day take over the collision shop.

“I got into an argument with my father and I decided to branch out and do my own thing. It didn’t end on good terms,” said Jose. “I lived on my own for a while. I had to find different jobs in the service industry. I really struggled and it wasn’t easy being on my own. It got really, really tough.”

Then his father reached back out to Jose.

“My family was watching me go through that struggle,” said Jose. “I think my pride wouldn’t let me come back and talk to him. But he reached out to me and said that he knew I was going through a rough time. He wanted me to come back to the shop. He needed the help. He reached out and helped me start over. ‘Let’s start from scratch,’ he said.”

A New Passion

This time around, Jose was determined to add value to the family business. “It was a life changing moment,” Jose stated. “Seeing how my dad responded and welcomed me back, I wanted to do good for him and give back to the family.”

Shortly after returning, the family attended an auto repair expo, sparking Jose’s interest in a new trade.

“I’ve been around cars my whole life. Even though I was used to the under the hood stuff, I didn’t ever consider the outside of the car,” said Jose. “I really became fascinated in how you can take something that is completely wrecked, and almost like a piece of art, make it look like nothing ever happened.”

Jose enrolled full-time in the Auto Refinishing program at Waubonsee Community College in Aurora, IL. It was there Jose was introduced to SkillsUSA through his instructor and mentor, Andrew McDonald .

Continuing Education

SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry; working together to help participants excel in their training programs and ensure America has a skilled workforce. Andrew saw a special talent in Jose and encouraged him to compete in the SkillsUSA State competition in Illinois.

“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime,” Andrew explains. “You get to take your skills against others. You have opportunities to meet distributors and other auto repair companies. If he’s got enough to get himself in this, I have his back. I have to make sure when he gets there, he’s ready to go. There is a lot of me saying ‘read this, study this’. ”

Jose went on to win his regional contest, qualifying to compete in the National Competition in Kansas City, MO.

Jose felt a great deal of accomplishment after winning the local competition, but he never imagined he would soon be the best of the best. As he stepped up on the Olympic-style podium to receive his gold medal, he looked out amongst the crowd of 15,000 and raised his hands in celebration.

With lights flashing around him, Jose envisioned proudly displaying his gold medal next to his diploma from Waubonsee in the office of the new shop he would one day open with his brother, Angel.

“Angel is more involved in the mechanic part of the repair industry, but I’m more familiar with the painting and finishing,” Jose explains. “It would be great to combine these skills for a full service shop. And being able to run it with my brother, well, that would be a great thing.”

Jose knows this victorious moment may not have happened without the opportunities afforded him by his father, his own desire to make his mark in the industry and the guidance provided by his mentor, Andrew. Organizations like SkillsUSA are helping young people like Jose turn their dreams into reality.

Jose sums up his time with SkillsUSA: “If you feel satisfied by working hard at it, it’s a fun experience. It’s worth every second of it.”