NCC Hosts Welding Fabrication Competition 

Northampton Community College (NCC) hosted the SkillsUSA Welding Fabrication Competition at its Bethlehem campus on January 13. The competition, hosted at the College for the first time this year, is one of 62 contests in a variety of career and technical fields. Contests run the gamut from culinary and cosmetology to automotive and welding, and they are created and judged by industry professionals. 

The welding fabrication competition consisted of a written test portion and a hands-on portion where five teams consisting of three students each were given blueprints and information to build a tow hitch carrier in four hours. The goal was to make it a usable product at the end of the competition.  

The students represented Bethlehem Vocational Technical School (BAVTS), Lehigh Career & Technical Institute (LCTI), Career Institute of Technology (CIT), Monroe Career & Technical Institute (MCTI), and Upper Bucks County Technical School.  

“It’s a chance for these high school students to showcase their skills,” says Andy Hammer, Executive Director SkillsUSA Council. 

Upper Bucks County Technical School’s Benjamin Kaczinski, Jayce Teman, and Coulton Meier took home medals and will be headed to states as the winners of this stage of the competition. If they do well there, they’ll head to the national conference in Atlanta, GA in June 2026.  

“It’s important to bring in students to show them what NCC could offer. For example, we're one of the few who have a robotic welder on the east coast,” says Associate Dean, Automotive, Industry & Manufacturing, Ken Nasatka. “We also partner with many of the schools to offer college credit for coursework completed upon their graduation.” 

The remaining contests will be held on February 4, in part, at Agriculture Hall (Ag Hall) in Allentown, with a few being held at NCC. Follow along with all things SkillsUSA at https://www.skillsusa.org/.