UPDATE: The following LHS CTEi students were awarded medals at this year’s SkillsUSA District Competition. 

On Monday March 20, 2023, 19 students from 5 shops at Leominster’s Center for Technical Education innovation will compete in the district round of SkillsUSA.

The students will compete remotely against 9 other schools in the district, and if they qualify, they will move on to the State competition, and the chance to make it Nationals. 

Last year, Honors Electronics student Rahim Rashid placed silver at the State competition and he was just a sophomore at the time. 

Rahim will be competing again on March 20 along with 18 other students from all different grades.

SkillsUSA is where vocational students go to, “compete with their technical talents,’’ said SkillsUSA advisor John Antonetti.

Antonetti has been the school’s SkillsUSA advisor for 6 years. He currently is co-advisor with Kathleen Chartrand. 

For many schools such as Monty Tech, SkillsUSA is a very big deal and almost all of their students compete.

For Leominster, each student has to be sponsored individually and because of this, Antonetti said, “we are limited in participation and interest.”

Even still, Antonetti said, “we are a very competitive school for a small school.”

CTEi consistently has at least medal winners come out of the district round. In the past they have not only won State competitions, but performed strongly at Nationals as well. 

Along with competitions for scholarships and prizes, SkillsUSA also has sections that teach the students how to be employable and every year there is a different theme.

This year’s theme is “Our Time is Now” and last year was “Job Ready”.

Antonetti is very excited to see his students compete.

The students taking part in the competition are:

The results of the district competition will be in a few days after they compete. Watch this space for updates and good luck CTEi.