PURPOSE

The Career Skills Challenge is sponsored by the Fresno County Office of Education, Fresno City College, and Fresno ROP for high school students within the Fresno, Madera, and Mariposa counties.

The Career Skills Challenge is an action-oriented event open to all students who attend a high school within the three counties. The purpose of the Challenge is to provide recognition and encouragement to high school students for their accomplishments in career skills, improve participation in educational programs, and encourage public support of career technical education.

The Career Skills Challenge will be held on the Fresno City College (FCC) campus, utilizing the staff, facilities, and equipment of the college. The Challenge occurs during the college's "Showcase Week", an informative open house for all students. When possible, Challenge competitors are encouraged to participate in "Showcase" activities. All of those involved with the Career Skills Challenge are guests at Fresno City College and it is important that we fully remember this; please ensure that all due respect is extended to the FCC staff, equipment, and facilities. FCC reserves the right to cancel an event based on the availability of staffing and facilities.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND RULES

It is imperative that teachers thoroughly review each event and ensure that each student is adequately and appropriately prepared. Some events call for specific items such as safety certificates, lesson plans, and special tools or equipment; students may not be allowed to participate in specific events without meeting such requirements.

Contests are open to high school students in grades 9 through 12 within Fresno, Madera, and Mariposa County Schools.

The Career Skills Challenge Committee has the right to limit the entries based on the facilities available. If the number of entries exceeds facility capacity for a specific event, the number of participants per school may be limited.

If an event is canceled or changed, students will be notified well in advance of the competition.

Reasonable precaution will be taken to protect materials and equipment brought by the competitor; however, the State Center Community College District and Fresno City College WILL NOT be responsible for loss or damage. All items brought to the contest by competitors should be clearly marked with the competitor's name.

Competitors and/or Advisors are responsible for picking up student work and materials prior to leaving Fresno City College.

Immediately following the completion and scoring of all events, medal winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony (in the Fresno City College gymnasium). If winners are not present, medals will be mailed to their sponsoring teacher.

The event managers and the judges are encouraged to provide critiques of the competition to the competitors. If the event manager elects to do this, it will be announced by the event manager at the event site prior to the start of the competition.

ENTRY PROCEDURES

ALL STUDENTS REGISTRATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED ONLINE BY 5:00 P.M. ON March 15, 2010...

All high school students are allowed to participate weather or not they are enrolled in a ROP course.

A student may ONLY compete in one event. If different teachers enter a student in more than one event, the teachers will be contacted to make a final determination of which event the student shall participate in.

ONLY ONLINE REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Each teacher will receive a copy of the event rosters, listing the registered participants for a specific event, one week prior to the event. The specific number of participants from each school will be determined by the event capacity and the total registrations received for that event. If registration is higher than capacity for a particular event, participation from each school may be reduced. When registrations outnumber the slots available for an event, consideration for participation will be based upon registration receipt date. This year, no alternates to the events will be listed. Please list your students and do not exceed the number of spaces provided. All efforts will be made to include each student but this is not always possible. Communication will be maintained throughout the registration process as concerns arise.

AWARDS AND JUDGING

Each event manager is responsible for recruiting appropriate judges. Judging will be based upon the criteria described in the event specifications.

Awards will be given in each event as follows:

First Place Gold Medallion
Second Place Silver Medallion
Third Place Bronze Medallion


Additional awards may be provided by various businesses and/or individual sponsors of a particular event.

No persons will be allowed, under any circumstances, to interfere with the judge(s) during judging or to offer any criticism of a competition effort. Any person, who shall attempt to interfere or interferes with the judging in any manner, whether verbally or otherwise, shall be excluded immediately from the competition area.

Judging will take place during the event and/or at the completion of the event, depending upon the nature of the competition.

AWARDS CEREMONY will start at 12:00 p.m. in the Fresno City College gymnasium. All of the competitors and their families and friends are asked to stay seated throughout the Awards Ceremony.