With the growing number of career opportunities in the Science, Engineering and Technology field, employers in the United States have identified skills and personal qualities that individuals should have. Young people, whether pursuing a career-path in entrepreneurial ventures or seeking employment opportunities in the future need to build core competencies and foundation skills, which include those, identified in the SCANS report.  It is important to expose youth to the 4-H SET curriculum to develop their workforce skills that include leadership, teamwork and communication are important to their career ready development. Ohio, Breckinridge, Hancock, Henderson, and Webster counties collaborated to plan, coordinate and implement a 4-H Team Challenge Camp, a two-day camp held at the West KY 4-H Camp to aid in developing an inquiring mind, practicing ethical standards, assessing self, learning to work with others, and developing decision making skills. 

Twenty-five middle school youth were divided into teams and worked together to complete 8 challenges that were based on seven 4-H core curriculum areas including Science Engineering and Technology, Family and Consumer Science, Health, Communications and Leadership that challenged participants both physically and mentally. A Teen Leader assigned to each team, provided assistance if the team encountered any problems or difficulties during the team challenge and helped ensure participant safety.    

Team challenge participants wore pedometers to track the level of physical activity. 4-H team members each walked approximately 10,000 steps during the Team Challenge, the recommended daily amount of steps. Teams worked as a group to prepare and cook a healthy meal. Following the event both participants and teen leaders completed surveys. Three of the most common answers for most valuable lesson learned during the event were the value of both verbal and non-verbal communications skills, teamwork and leadership. Many of the participants found that at first it was difficult to work with a diverse group that they did not know, but quickly realized how important it was to overcome that barrier in order to be successful as a team. Participants also commented on the amount of physical activity that was involved with the event and noted that they realized how much physical activity they were lacking in their daily routines.