A slogan that could also be the theme of this column. I’ve seen proof it’s now gaining widespread momentum.
Last week, I heard this message from dozens of students, faculty members, and parents, when I had the opportunity to observe the SkillsUSA student competition, at Thomas Edison CTE High School in Queens. There, hundreds of CTE students from across the city competed in various tests of their technical and job skills taught by their outstanding faculties.
In their annual SkillsUSA regional competition, students demonstrated their newly acquired abilities in areas like: automotive, electrical, carpentry, photography, computers, and several other career tracks. Not only did the students compete with one another in their respective areas, I am told, they also organized the entire event themselves. Every aspect of the day was most impressive, and all the participating students, faculty, and administrators, should be extremely proud of their accomplishments.
SkillsUSA, the largest organization dedicated to preparing students for technical, skilled and service careers, has been an integral part of career and technical education since 1965, with a mission of improving the quality of our skilled workforce.
Their goal is to help students achieve career readiness through partnerships with dedicated teachers in CTE schools. They team up with those schools to ensure that students have opportunities to grow their skills, learn how to be world-class leaders, and are prepared to reduce the growing job skills gap.
SkillsUSA organizes events, conferences, and programs to provide opportunities for students to grow their skills in many ways. Students learn essential job skills and other work essentials, by developing and showcasing their abilities through regional SkillsUSA Championships.
The program’s learning expectations are based on the skills sets needed by industry. This includes personal, workplace, and technical skills grounded in academics. Participating students develop all the skill sets needed to make them valuable members of the workforce.
Across the country, students in SkillsUSA chapters participate in their Chapter Excellence Programs, where they receive invaluable experiences through planning and executing activities by applying the essential elements they learn in class.
The theme of SkillsUSA, “Our Time is Now,” conveys to students, now is their time to develop employability skills, demonstrate those skills, and take every opportunity to develop themselves into powerful skilled workforce leaders.
Their message to students: Training opportunities are available to you, so reach out and grab them NOW!
My message to school administrators: Make Career and Technical Education learning opportunities available to every student who wants to… reach out and grab them – and DO IT NOW!
End the skills gap now – CTE for ALL!
More here: https://www.skillsusa.org/
