SkillsUSA

About SkillsUSA

SkillsUSA is a national membership association serving high school, college and middle school students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations, and for further education. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA helps each student excel.

Membership:

More than 365,000 students and advisors join SkillsUSA each year, organized within more than 19,000 local classrooms at 4,600 schools in 53 state and territorial associations. In 2018-19, 20,926 teachers served as professional members and SkillsUSA advisors. Combining alumni membership, the total number reached last year was 427,432. SkillsUSA has served more than 13.5 million members since its founding in 1965.

Partners:

More than 600 business, industry and labor organizations actively support SkillsUSA at the national level through financial aid, in-kind contributions, and involvement of their people in SkillsUSA activities. Many more work directly with state associations and local chapters. Commitment by industry to the annual national SkillsUSA Championships is valued at more than $36 million.

Mission:

SkillsUSA empowers its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. SkillsUSA improves the quality of our nation’s future skilled workforce through the development of Framework skills that include personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics.

Vision:

SkillsUSA produces the most highly skilled workforce in the world, providing every member the opportunity for career success.

Programs:

SkillsUSA offers local, state and national opportunities for students to learn and practice personal, workplace and technical skills. These three components comprise the SkillsUSA Framework, a blueprint for career readiness. Local chapters conduct a full program of work and many students also attend a district or state conference. At the SkillsUSA Championships, more than 6,500 students compete in more than 105 occupational and leadership skill areas each June. These national technical competitions help establish industry standards for job skill training and entry-level workers. SkillsUSA is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a successful model of employer-driven youth development training.

Resources:

SkillsUSA offers many resources for educators and students. The Chapter Excellence Program honors local chapter achievement around the SkillsUSA Framework of personal, workplace and technical skills. The SkillsUSA Career Essentials suite is a solution to industry and education needs in preparing career-ready students who are productive and promotable. Including Foundations, Experiences and Assessments, the suite helps students develop the skills, attitudes and values that allow them to stand out from other applicants in the skilled labor marketplace. Jump into STEM! provides tools and activities for SkillsUSA members to help both elementary- and middle-school students take part in interactive career experiences. Student2Student Mentoring gives high school students opportunity to mentor younger students around career exploration. CareerSafe is a 10-hour online OSHA safety-training program that provides students with a workplace credential. The SkillsUSA Championships Technical Standards is the official competition guide, with a full list of competencies as well as embedded academic skills.

Five Big Things Made Possible by SkillsUSA

Nationwide Network of students and instructors in a common bond with industry. We’ve grown from 26 state and territorial associations to 53 and served over 13.5 million annual members total since 1965. More than 600 businesses, corporations, trade associations and labor unions are partners at the national level alone, with thousands more supporting at state and local levels.

Employability and Leadership Training with award-winning curricula, such as the Professional Development Program (now SkillsUSA Career Essentials: Experiences), in support of our Program of Work. Our training, conducted in more than 17,500 classroom sections, provides applied instruction and opportunities for CTE students to lead as officers and serve as chapter members.

Civically Engaged chapters conduct thousands of community service activities every year, using their occupational and leadership skills to benefit their neighbors, hometowns and the nation. CTE students gain public respect and understanding as a result. As important, they experience the exhilaration of helping others as they become Champions at Work.

Skilled Workforce. We are addressing both the skills gap and skilled worker shortages through programs such as the SkillsUSA Championships and industry-driven SkillsUSA Career Essentials: Assessments. We serve 130 occupational titles that represent one-quarter of the jobs offered by our nation’s economy. Our work is very much about America’s future.

Representing CTE. From local school boards to governors and statehouses and all the way to Washington, D.C., SkillsUSA continues to send a long line of red blazers to talk with policymakers, legislators and the news media about the purpose of career education and how important it is to students and employers. Our students are the “face” of CTE.

By The Numbers

53 state and territorial associations
More than 13.5 million annual members total since 1965
600+ national partners –– businesses, trade associations and unions
More than 18,000 classrooms conducting SkillsUSA training nationwide
Thousands of community service activities each year
1/4 of U.S. occupational areas covered by SkillsUSA curriculum –– that’s 130 job categories

Our Impact

In 1965, 200 students, teachers and administrators held a conference at a hotel in Nashville, Tenn. In founding the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America, their goal was to establish a nationwide organization to represent trade and industrial education and to serve student needs.

Now, SkillsUSA changes lives every day. Students discover and grow their career passions and appreciate their own self-worth through the work and dedication of instructors, administrators, association directors, industry partners and alumni.

We continue to reach toward the founders’ vision, but –– bottom line –– our core purpose is the same: to help instructors reach and engage their students so their students will succeed.

SkillsUSA is privileged to serve students, schools, colleges and industry, and the most inspiring instructors and administrators in American education.

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