SkillsUSA Competitors Make News by Making Things

Photos courtesy of SkillsUSA

A presidential debate and a Copa America match were taking place at the same time and mere yards away in downtown Atlanta in June, with results that some would rather forget. But the memorable achievements at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference next door to those events will be what matter most to thousands of career and technical education students and their future employers nationwide.

As we documented last year in this space, the SkillsUSA Championships are one of the largest hands-on workforce development events in the world, featuring more than 6,000 state champions competing head-to-head in 115 skills and leadership competitions. In a training exercise for the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, I scoured the long list of nearly 700 medal winners (some of those medals earned by multiple individuals competing as a team) to see which states appear to be leading the nation in career & technical education at the college and high school levels. Here are the top states by medal count:

Just outside looking in were Florida with 23 medals and Alabama and Nebraska tied with 22 medals apiece.

Notable clusters of medals were earned in certain communities and under the aegis of certain institutions.

Areas accumulating five medals apiece included Orlando, Florida; Hickory, Jamestown and Morehead City, North Carolina; Enid, Oklahoma; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Knoxville, Tennessee and Lehi, Utah.

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Standing out among institutions was the network of Tennessee College of Applied Technology campuses, which together saw 25 medals accumulated by TCAT students in 15 locations across the state from Memphis to Knoxville, including impressive performances out of Morristown and Chattanooga. Other standout institutions include Orem-based Utah Valley University with 12 medals (see our 2020 interview with UVU President Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez.)

Here are other standout institutions and medal counts:

SkillsUSA medal winners competed in 115 different skills and leadership areas.

At the conference, SkillsUSA also announced its top three chapters for the 2024 Models of Excellence (MOE) program, selected for best representing “the intentional application of the SkillsUSA Framework and its three industry-demanded components: Personal, Workplace and Technical Skills Grounded in Academics.” Winners for 2024 were Greater Lowell Technical High School of Massachusetts (Personal Skills), Alliance Academy of Innovation of Georgia (Workplace Skills), and Willow Canyon High School of Arizona (Technical Skills).

Prior to the conference, in May, Leesburg, Virginia-based SkillsUSA teamed up with Phoenix-based TechForce Foundation to announce “a strategic collaboration to empower the next generation of skilled aviation, automotive, collision repair, diesel and welding technicians and tackle the technician shortage head-on.”

“Both organizations are committed to the outcome of a skilled, passionate workforce, so ensuring our communications channels cross-pollinate ensures our students, and industry, win,” said TechForce Foundation CEO Jennifer Maher. “With TechForce having over $4 million in scholarships to award this year alone, and SkillsUSA being active in nearly 5,000 schools and over 21,000 classrooms nationwide, it’s a natural alliance that supercharges results for the next generation of skilled technicians.”

Meanwhile, SkillsUSA has committed to Atlanta as the host city for its National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC) through 2033, selecting Georgia’s capital city from 28 host-city options. On an FAQ page the organization explained that the site selection process began in 2022, with the 28 cities eventually narrowed to four finalists. SkillsUSA then listed the reasons Atlanta was chosen:

• Atlanta is recognized as the #1 convention city nationwide by the Convention Cities Index (CCI).
• Atlanta received the second highest CCI safety rating of the four finalist cities. (The top city could not compete with Atlanta in other key areas.)
• Atlanta is within a two-hour flight for 80% of the U.S. population, and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport offers more flights than any other airport in the country.
• The city is home to thousands of hotel rooms (with more hotels under construction) within walking distance of the convention and entertainment district.
• Atlanta boasts world-class venues equipped to house our growing NLSC events. (The Georgia World Congress Center is the fourth largest convention center in the U.S.)
• Atlanta provided SkillsUSA with — by far — the most favorable cost benefits of all competing cities, crucial in allowing us to create the best experiences possible for our attendees.
• Atlanta is recognized as a global hub of innovation, and its positioning as “the place where talent converges to power the new economy” perfectly aligns with SkillsUSA’s positioning as “the #1 workforce development organization for students.”

The annual conference occurs in late June every year except 2026, when, the organization noted, the typical date pattern was changed to early June “to accommodate the FIFA World Cup being held in Atlanta.”

For more on that upcoming global event and the impact of soccer and other sports on the region, watch for a Site Selection Online Insider coming later in July 2024. In the meantime, SkillsUSA competitors, their sponsoring institutions and their future employers know where to go to realize the goals that matter most. — Adam Bruns

SkillsUSA has committed to convene in Atlanta annually through 2033.