Representing more than 442,000 career and technical education students and teachers, SkillsUSA chapters thrive in middle schools, high schools and college/postsecondary institutions nationwide. Our mission is accomplished through the SkillsUSA Framework of Personal Skills, Workplace Skills and Technical Skills Grounded in Academics, which is integrated into classroom curriculum.
Through the Framework, SkillsUSA students hone their hands-on skills against current industry standards in more than 130 occupational areas, from 3D Animation to Welding and nearly everything in between. At the same time, they develop the transformative career-readiness skills — teamwork, communication, professionalism, leadership and more — that fuel career and life success.
A vital solution to the ongoing skills gap, where more highly skilled jobs are available than skilled professionals ready to fill them, SkillsUSA has served over 15 million diverse, difference-making members since 1965.
- Mission: SkillsUSA is America’s proud champion of the skilled trades. Our mission is to empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders, and responsible community members.
- Vision: SkillsUSA is America’s proud champion of the skilled trades. Our mission is to empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members.
- Values: The following values inform and inspire our work and interactions.
- Integrity: We are consistent and authentic in word and action to each other, our members and the communities we serve.
- Respect: Respect is foundational. Our self-awareness precedes our ability to connect with each other and our members while mutually valuing our unique experiences.
- Responsibility: We are accountable to the whole of our organization, from internal staff to our diverse group of stakeholders. Through listening, learning and acting, we engage in our shared commitment to realizing a collective vision.
- Community: We value and belong to a diverse community. We strive to do our best in service through continuous reflection and growth.
- Service.: SkillsUSA acts through the willing service of staff and committed volunteers to empower its members and their communities to reach their highest potential.
- Impact: A 2023 report (condensed report) from the Student Research Foundation shows that SkillsUSA members consistently outperform their peers not enrolled in a career and technical student organization (CTSO) in seven essential areas:
- Earning a license or certification related to their field of study
- Meeting potential employers
- Being excited about their chosen career
- Gaining work experience as a student
- Understanding the work environment
- Being excited about school
- Connecting school to the real world
- The SKillsUSA Framework: The SkillsUSA Framework illustrates how students fulfill the mission of the organization: to empower members to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members.
What it does:
- Provides a common language for students to articulate what they gain from SkillsUSA participation to employers, school administrators, parents and other students
- Assesses student skill development along a learning continuum of awareness, demonstration and mastery
- Creates a vision for SkillsUSA programs at the local, state and national levels to ensure quality student-led experiences that build skills in all members
Why it works:
- Empowers every student to achieve career success
- Delivers a skill set demanded by business and industry but lacking in many employees today
- Ensures that every student member receives a consistent and specific skill set
- The SkillsUSA Program of Work:
The heart of SkillsUSA’s success can be found in our thousands of local chapters across the nation. That’s why providing ways for chapters to stay strong and engaged throughout the year is so important. SkillsUSA’s Program of Work (PoW) is the road map for planning and implementing an annual calendar of chapter activities. When a SkillsUSA chapter aligns its yearly activities with the PoW, students receive rich experiences that empower them to become career ready.
The PoW features six categories that define areas of focus for a well-run chapter in the same way a well-run business may be divided into different divisions. Each division has specific responsibilities, but all contribute to the overall success of the business. Likewise, SkillsUSA chapters are encouraged to create separate committees for each of the six categories and then facilitate category-specific activities for the whole chapter. When a chapter provides rich experiences in all six categories of the PoW, it empowers students to become career ready. It also allows students the opportunity to practice and perform the Essential Elements of the SkillsUSA Framework and receive feedback to strengthen their skills.
- Commitments to our Communities:
SkillsUSA strives to ensure inclusive participation in all of our programs, partnerships and employment opportunities. We strive to make all members, partners and employees feel welcomed and valued in the SkillsUSA family. SkillsUSA believes in treating all people with respect and dignity. We want SkillsUSA to be regarded as a membership organization of choice that encourages all individuals to be involved.
- SkillsUSA is committed to serving the diversity of members within our schools and communities.
- SkillsUSA holds itself accountable to advancing the needs of marginalized students and will endeavor to serve as a leader in this capacity within career and technical education.
- SkillsUSA identifies and actively removes barriers to equitable access for members while providing inclusive opportunities for students to grow.
- SkillsUSA is committed to critical reflection and continuous learning.
- SkillsUSA, the organization, is focused on equity within its work environment.