26 Leyden students passed a qualifying exam for the annual SkillsUSA Illinois State Leadership Conference.  There were 36 students that took the test on February 15th.

Students across Illinois took the test to find out who would qualify for state. Only the students scoring the highest are invited to the state competition in April. The tests varied depending on which category the student wanted to compete in.

SkillsUSA is a nonprofit organization that ensures America a skilled workforce through the partnership of students, teachers and professionals.

For last year’s qualifying exam only 11 Leyden students made it to state and none made it to nationals. This year, there are high hopes for some students to make it to nationals based on Leyden’s history.

“Leyden usually does well at state,” said East Leyden’s SkillsUSA adviser Joe Shilts.

“There are a lot more students going to state this year and there are more students in different categories,” he added.

The tests that the students took varied depending on the area they registered in; from automotives to screen printing to Adobe Photoshop.  But, along with their individual category tests, students also took a tie-breaker test.

In the event of two students scoring the same on a test, the separate tie-breaker test is used to pick which student will be allowed to go to state. There are only a certain number of students allowed to go to state in the competing high schools all around the state. This number is different based on each category.

In the next month, students who qualified will be preparing for the state competition in Springfield.

The students that qualified for state would be taking an overnight field trip to Springfield, IL on April 11th. On April 12th students would be competing in their specialized areas.