Woodwork Career Alliance adds credential certifiers
Woodwork Career Alliance WoodLINKS145.JPG
Woodwork Career Alliance adds credential certifiers 
From left: Woodwork Career Alliance secretary Greg Heuer; Monroe HS teacher Kim Cairy; Monona Grove HS teacher Don Tupper; Madison West HS Jim “Buck” Buchanon; and WoodLINKS Vice-President & WCA Board member, Patrick Molzahn.
MADISON, WI

- WoodLINKS USA says three WoodLINKS-program high school teachers are among a group of a dozen woodworking industry professionals trained as evaluators for the Woodwork Career Alliance of North America Skill Standards.

The Woodwork Career Alliance (WCA) provides the new Woodwork Passport – a portable, personal and permanent record of a woodworker’s level of competency in tool and machine operations. For both employers, and woodworker job applicants carrying it, the Woodwork Passport provides instant verification of skills and experience in the job application process.

The Woodwork Career Alliance delivered its first-ever training for WCA evaluators at Madison (WI)  College on Saturday, April 30. WoodLINKS USA, the educational outreach that propagates woodworking education in high schools and community colleges,  has adopted the WCA Skill Standards as an evaluation tool for its member school sites, which currently number about 100 locations across the U.S.

Woodwork Career Alliance says the Woodwork Passport  provides a skill certification and passport stamp for individuals in the woodwork industry to quantify and qualify their ability to operate specific woodwork tools properly and safely, to create high quality wood products. Tools, machines and operations in the program can be viewed at woodworkcareer.org, and the Woodwork Passport costs $55; a book of the standards is available for $75. Both are available at www.brightdoc.com/wca.

The Woodwork Career Alliance of North America (WCA), based in Nellysford, VA, is a non-profit organization actively promoting a skilled workforce for the advanced woodworking industry. It says it promotes observable and measurable standards for tool and machine operations and a system to evaluate performance and results produced by woodworking professionals. 

These teachers trained as evaluators are now able to begin test worker competencies and stamp WCA Passports.  The program is described at www.woodworkcareer.org

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