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Donating Comfort, One Family at a Time

To help prepare for an upcoming state conference project, students from the Gloucester County Institute of Technology in Sewell, N.J., partnered with the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey to help provide families-in-need with essential items. The school’s SkillsUSA community service team collected over 3000 items, assembled over 300 kits, and gathered even more donations from the local community. Students and advisors then visited the facility to deliver the items. During a tour, they learned more about what the charity does to help keep families of ill and injured children together and near the care and resources they need. This year, GCIT students plan to prepare dinner and essential services... Read More

Fighting to Serve

Timing was everything in Michael Ramirez’s situation. Two days before the school had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ramirez completed his Emergency Medical Technician course at North Valley Occupational Center in Mission Hills, Calif. Ramirez was proud to finish his course, but that wasn’t good enough; he wanted to pass his national certifying exam so he could start serving his community as an EMT immediately. There was a problem with that strategy: all the exam sites were closed, too. Ramirez could’ve sat back and waited, but he kept searching for an available site. When one reopened in Los Angeles, Ramirez got there as quickly... Read More

SkillsUSA Partners Provide Support to Take SkillsUSA Career Essentials to the Virtual Classroom

Educational Curriculum offered during COVID-19 Pandemic Leesburg, Va. — The current pandemic has forced instructors and school administrators to quickly move their courses to online environments. Thanks to the generosity of select SkillsUSA partners who want to support online learning, SkillsUSA is now providing free access to the SkillsUSA Career Essentials suite. Access for up to 40,000 students will be provided by SkillsUSA through this partner support. SkillsUSA partners who have joined in the effort to date include CHANNELLOCK, Distribution Contractors Association (DCA), Ferguson Enterprises Inc., Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, Lowe’s Companies, Pella Corporation... Read More

Miller Offering Free Tools for Welding Instructors and Students

Miller Electric — a longtime partner of SkillsUSA — wants to make sure our welding instructors and students know about OpenBook™, their powerful FREE tool designed to help instructors move their welding training efforts to an online experience. OpenBook™ is an online learning management system (LMS) consisting of a variety of e-learning modules that help instructors assign and deliver welding content, create quizzes, download welding labs, monitor student participation, and assess student progress and performance. Module topics include Basic Electricity, Introduction to Welding, Introduction to Metals, Cutting Processes, SMAW, GTAW and GMAW. OpenBook™ was introduced in the Summer of 2018 as... Read More

COVID-19 Crisis Forces Cancellation of All In-Person Events at SkillsUSA’s 2020 National Leadership and Skills Conference

Leesburg, Va. — SkillsUSA, a national student organization serving more than 365,000 students and teachers in career and technical education, has canceled all in-person events at its 2020 National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC) due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Select leadership components of the conference — including state officer training, delegate sessions, national officer elections and other recognition programs to be determined — are currently being restructured for potential delivery in a virtual format. SkillsUSA was scheduled to hold its 56th annual national conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville from June 22-26. The... Read More

SkillsUSA and Industry Leaders Come Together to Help CTE Students Continue Learning During COVID-19 Crisis

Industry Coalition to Leverage Experience, Connections and Resources Leesburg, Va. — To support continued learning for career and technical education (CTE) students during the COVID-19 crisis, SkillsUSA has joined with Lincoln Electric, Tooling U-SME, NC3 and camInstructor to form the CTE Coalition. The coalition has quickly mobilized to create the Keep CTE Moving website, a central portal where instructors and students can access hundreds of online classes, videos, and instructional materials in areas such as machining, welding, mechatronics, industry 4.0, and programming. All online materials — many available at no charge for the next 30 days — are produced by... Read More

Official 2020 NLSC Announcement from SkillsUSA Executive Director Chelle Travis

Official 2020 NLSC Announcement from SkillsUSA Executive Director Chelle Travis The current health crisis we’re facing has affected all walks of life, and, consequently, all aspects of SkillsUSA. That includes our National Leadership and Skills Conference. Over the last several weeks, SkillsUSA has conducted an exhaustive study of all potential options for holding our national event. As the crisis has changed, so have those options, and we have now made our final decision. Instead of holding our national conference as planned this June, SkillsUSA will be holding virtual state officer training, delegate sessions and national officer... Read More

Rees Scholarship Program for HVACR Technicians Expands AHRI Partners with SkillsUSA

Leesburg, Va. – The Board of Directors of the Clifford H. “Ted” Rees, Jr., Scholarship Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), today announced a partnership with SkillsUSA, expanding the long-standing scholarship program designed for students pursuing a career in the HVACR and water heating industry. With more than 365,000 members nationwide, SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers, and industry working together to ensure a skilled American workforce. “The Rees Scholarship Program exists to ensure that qualified, knowledgeable technicians are available to support the industry,” said AHRI President and... Read More

Building Ties One Book at a Time

Carpentry students from Bossier Parish (La.) Technical School had an opportunity to serve their community and make a difference by building two public bookcases outside of a local parent center. The “Free Little Libraries” allow visitors to stop by and either pick up a book to read or leave books for others to read. The parent center staff believes students will really benefit from the project by increasing their literacy skills through reading the books that are available. The SkillsUSA students plan to continue working with the parent center to come up with new projects that serve the community. Read More