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With a Program Short on Funds, Students Combine Skills to Help

Students from Central Technology Center in Drumright, Okla., raised $1,500 for Cleveland Public Schools, a feeder system in need of funding. Welding/fabrication students worked with the diesel technology class to build outdoor furniture and custom signs. The items were sold in conjunction with a car show and auction held by the Octane Outlaws of Cleveland. The students are bronze medal winners in SkillsUSA’s college/postsecondary Community Action competition. Students David Casey, welding, and Austin Davidson, diesel, put finishing touches on a picnic table (inset) sold during a car show. Read More

National Officers Take the Lead in SkillsUSA Week Activities

Sen. Casey met with SkillsUSA National Officers, staff and Channellock personnel on Advocacy Day during SkillsUSA Week. Last week, we had some great chapter activities across the nation to celebrate SkillsUSA Week. Our national officers and staff were also very busy with activities. Here is a brief synopsis of the week’s highlights. On Monday, for Appreciation Day, SkillsUSA North Carolina director Peyton Holland and representatives of SkillsUSA’s lead sponsor for SkillsUSA Week, Channellock Inc., attended a school assembly and went on a campus tour at Nash Community College in Rocky Mount, N.C. Read More

SkillsUSA Highlighted at CTE 101 Briefing 

SkillsUSA Executive Director Tim Lawrence served  as a panelist for a CTE 101 briefing for Hill staffers on Friday, Feb. 8. The event was a recruitment push for the House CTE Caucus and a co-sponsorship push for the House’s CTE Month Resolution. Hosted by Representatives Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) and Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), the panelists talked about career and technical education (CTE), what CTE programs look like, Perkins V funding, and career and technical student organizations (CTSOs). Speakers including Jared Nagurka of ACTE and Kathryn Zekus of Advance CTE, along with Tim Lawrence, who used the lens of SkillsUSA to... Read More

SkillsUSA Celebrates Workforce Development with National Advocacy Day on Feb. 5

SkillsUSA students serving as national officers visited Washington, D.C., Feb. 5 to advocate for SkillsUSA and career and technical education (CTE) during SkillsUSA Week and CTE Month. Starting the day at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE), 13 members of the SkillsUSA national officer team, along with executive director Tim Lawrence and other staff, were greeted by Assistant Secretary of Education Scott Stump. The OCTAE meeting was chaired by Casey Sacks, deputy assistant secretary for community colleges. Attending were Department of Education staff including Sharon Miller, Steve Brown, Craig... Read More

SkillsUSA Featured in ACTE Techniques Magazine for CTE Month

Career and technical student organizations (CTSOs) enhance student learning through contextual instruction, leadership and personal development, applied learning and real-world application.” Read the full story in ACTE Techniques magazine. Read More

National Research Center Data Shows SkillsUSA Members are Learning Essential Skills and Developing Career Plans

New research at public high schools in the United States has been released by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA) that shows the majority of SkillsUSA members feel they are engaged in relevant coursework that prepares them for higher education or careers. A study of 15,943 career and technical (CTE) students in Fall 2018 indicates that SkillsUSA members are acquiring significant skills from their career and technical coursework including responsibility (66 percent), work ethic (60 percent), teamwork (59 percent), communication (55 percent) and decision making (43 percent). Nearly half of students (47 percent) cite... Read More

The Hot New Gen-Z Trend Is Skipping College

On a recent Wednesday morning, about 20 students at Queens Technical High School marched into a supply closet and retrieved what looked, to an outsider, like silver suitcases. They sat back down at the classroom’s U-shaped table arrangement and opened what were in fact “advanced cable trainers,” kits containing the cables and wire cutters they’d be working with throughout their senior year. Meanwhile, their teacher, David Abreu, began to lecture them about what it’s like out “in industry”—the vocational school term for the proverbial “real world.” Read the full story on VICE.com. Read More

Opening the Door to High-Demand Jobs: SkillsUSA Week Kicks Off Feb. 3

Channellock, Inc., and Toyota USA Foundation Sponsor National Celebration to Support Workforce Development, Close Skills Gap Leesburg, Va. — From South Pasadena High School in California to Pulaski County Technical Education Center in Virginia, SkillsUSA chapters at schools across the country are opening their doors Feb. 3-9 during SkillsUSA Week. The annual event run by SkillsUSA, a national nonprofit focused on workforce development, helps build awareness for high-demand jobs available through career and technical education (CTE). More than 4,000 schools are expected to participate. SkillsUSA Week includes presentations to administrators, business leaders and legislators; school tours and open houses; community service... Read More

2019 SkillsUSA Week Chapter Grant Winners Announced

Congratulations to the recipients of the SkillsUSA Week grant. These grants of up to $1,000 are sponsored in partnership with Channellock and Toyota. Chapters were selected based on their compelling narratives about how the grant funds will be used to assist in creating a SkillsUSA open house during SkillsUSA Week (Feb. 3-9) that will serve to increase community awareness and help recruit members. Grant recipients are listed by state in alphabetical order: Pinson Valley High School in Alabama Earnest Pruett Center of Technology inAlabama Willow Canyon High School in Arizona South Pasadena High School in California Cross... Read More