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Students get hands-on experience in automotive industry

One competition held today in Blair County looked to help local students take the next step in the automotive industry.

Skills USA Pennsylvania held the event at Stucky Ford & Subaru in Hollidaysburg.

Several schools from District 7 competed in an automotive competition. Today, they learned about and were tested on automotive service and maintenance and light repair. 

Organizers say it gives the kids real world experience in how to work in the field.

 “I knew that since 11th grade that I wanted to go into auto-tech, it was a great time for me,” student Aaron Devers said. “I asked my parents, they said, you do it. Great time to get into it.”

“We just try to do what we can for the community,” Subaru Service Manager Wesley Lloyd said.  “Most of our technicians are students that were in these programs, whether or not they did the skills competition or not, I don’t know.  

“A lot of our kids come from there.  We want to do what we can to help support and do what we can for the community and it’s always a good thing to try and help encourage the younger kids to look at this as a career path.”

The winner goes on to the state competition in Hershey in April.