SkillsUSA
Search
Legal / Privacy / Index / Membership Login
StudentsEducatorsSupportersAbout UsEventsCompeteJoinConnectShopContact
Home > Tim's Blog

Army Initiative to Tackle (More) Tough Problems

November 15th, 2010

On October 25 – 27, I met with thought leaders from a who’s who list of American education and service organizations – including the military – during the Army’s Strengthening America’s Youth (SAY) conference at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. Among the organizations represented were the National Governors Association, National Association of State Boards of Education and the National Guidance Counselor’s Association. Leading SAY is Lieutenant General Benjamin Freakley who attended the SkillsUSA national conference two years ago. Freakley invited the groups to meet together to find ways to address youth issues in a coordinated fashion.

One of the initiatives where SkillsUSA will be involved is called Project PASS (Partnerships for ALL Students’ Success) a dropout prevention and intervention strategy, developed by the National Association of State Boards of Education. The Army and five states including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Kansas and Mississippi. Project PASS will work in both middle schools and high schools and involve parents as well as students. This is another way SkillsUSA can reach toward the Vision 2020 goal of helping one million people annually, and I commend the Army for its leadership.

Tags: ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

State CTE Directors Fall Meeting

November 15th, 2010

While I was in Kansas City, a staffer represented SkillsUSA during the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education consortium (NASDCTEc) fall meeting in Baltimore. NASDCTEc meeting agendas are always packed with great information. The first half of this conference focused on leading strategic change and was very much in line with SkillsUSA’s own Vision 2020 when looking at the acceleration of change around us. (Here’s an interesting factoid from workshop leader Langdon Morris to illustrate the rate of change: An iPod – if it had existed in 1976 – would have cost $3.2 billion and would have taken up an entire computer room.)

The second half of the conference got down to specifics on career and technical education including a presentation and a panel discussion by experts on a recently released study entitled Learning for Jobs: The OECD Policy Review of Vocational Education and Training. Simon Field, the project manager for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development cited several of the study’s findings comparing vocational education at the high school level in 34 nations. He began with the point that “The wealth of nations will come to rely more on the skills of their people than on other sources such as natural resources.” As a consequence, nations should be investing in vocational education and, he said, “The top priority should be bridging the gap between school and business.” When compared to other developed nations, Simon said: “The U.S. actually has a good high school CTE structure. It just needs to be used for far more students” and he spoke specifically of those students who delay postsecondary education until they are 28. One of the panelists, Robert Schwartz, professor of practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education, said he has changed his mind on the value of career and technical education. He said the applied method works and that CTE, when focused on a credential – not narrowly job specific – and including employability and occupational skills, is the way to build a society, not just workers.

Staff met with Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier, assistant secretary, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, as she began her “national Perkins listening tour” on CTE and we’ve invited her to national conference. We also broached the subject of a briefing at the Department of Education for the Youth Development Foundation Committee meeting to be held in Washington in April and was told: “Get me the dates.” Staff reports that Board Member Milt Ericksen was an outstanding master of ceremonies for the NASDCTEc sessions.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

Highlights

November 15th, 2010
  • Of course, the big news was the SkillsUSA CEO Champion of the Year dinner, but I covered that in a fairly comprehensive report previously. SkillsUSA continues to receive rave reviews and congratulations from those who attended.
  • As I reported in a previous e-mail, I spoke during the North American STEM Education Symposium and attended the Graphics EXPO in early October. I’ve also recently met with Robert Hivish of Xerox, who talked about digital components in our graphics competitions. As a result of the STEM Symposium, Staffspoke recently to the Hartford County, Md. public schools where they’re interested in using our Work Force Ready System standards and assessments for the school system. They also invited representatives from nearby Pennsylvania schools. Another STEM development—Rosanne White, executive director of TSA and I were invited to the first annual Project Lead The Way STEM Conference in Washington, D.C. Approximately 900 attended. We served on two separate panels, to discuss the power of competitions in inspiring students STEM success. It was also a great opportunity to discuss the Engineering Alliance. While at the conference, Rosanne and I met with John Lock, president of Project Lead the Way, regarding the Engineering Alliance and reinforcing STEM skills. And on November 1, YDF member Mike Ogilvy and Brenda Quinn of intelitek visited to talk about the Center for Energy Workforce Development assessment project. SkillsUSA is just connected everywhere!
  • Staff recently attended a meeting at the Department of Labor to discuss the YouthBuild grant. Plans for funding the grant are underway as are strategies and site selection. It looks as though the initiative could be in place starting next summer.
  • Finally, thanks again to YDF member Dave Camden of Toyota, SkillsUSA now owns a brand new, beautiful and fully-loaded 2011 Toyota Sienna van.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

Week of Champions DVD

November 15th, 2010

State association directors have been sent a copy of the Week of Champions DVD. The DVD is being distributed free to instructors who’ve registered at least 20 student members plus one or more professionals by November 15 (value: $14.95). In addition, those instructors who’ve submitted a roster by November 15th with 100-percent membership plus one or more professionals will be receiving a SkillsUSA Program of Work calendar (value: $5.95). Both items will be offered in the Spring 2011 SkillsUSA Educational Resources Catalog that mails in January. Likewise, SkillsUSA members receive a subscription to SkillsUSA Champions, the official magazine of our organization. To receive all four issues during the school year, student names must have been submitted online or received postmarked by November 15.

The Week of Champions DVD is designed to explain SkillsUSA’s National Leadership and Skills Conference to those who aren’t familiar with the event. It can also be used as a tool to recruit non-members, to inspire current members to attend and/or compete and to encourage business and industry support. The 10-minute video contains footage from recent conferences and chronicles the major events occurring throughout the week, such as SkillsUSA TECHSPO, the Opening Ceremony, the SkillsUSA Championships, community service, the Awards Ceremony and more. This DVD is not to be confused with our annual “NLSC Souvenir DVD.” The Souvenir DVD is geared mainly toward attendees of the most recent conference and clocks in at around 30 minutes. The Week of Champions DVD is much more concise yet features more detailed explanations of each event.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

NTHS Scholarships Offered

November 15th, 2010

SkillsUSA has once again teamed up with the National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) to promote outstanding student achievement within technical education. SkillsUSA is offering four $1,000 scholarships through NTHS (two college/postsecondary and two high school), and these will be awarded at the 2011 national conference. The deadline is April 1, 2011. For more information, go to: www.skillsusa.org/students/nths.shtml

Tags: ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

Washington Conference Gets High Marks

November 1st, 2010

“I had a great time, learned a lot, and made many lifetime friends. I’m excited to go back home and share what I learned. I can’t wait to come back again. Thanks for a good conference. You all ROCK!” That was one of the comments from the students attending the Washington Leadership Training Institute (WLTI). Here’s a comment from a teacher: “This was my first time attending WLTI and it will be one of my top memories in 15 years of SkillsUSA involvement.”

Of course, perennial highlights for student delegations during WLTI are the congressional office visits. This year, in the space of about five hours, the students and teachers from 21 states made at least 78 office visits. The delegation reports are in and transcribed, and here’s a sampling of what the students had to report:

“We met with Representative Neugebauer (Texas). He said he strongly believes in what SkillsUSA is all about and he said that Perkins funding is very important. He said without CTE programs we wouldn’t have a productive nation; it’s the basis of our work force.”

“We met with a legislative aide in Representative Arcuri’s (New York) office. It was the first time she’d heard about SkillsUSA and she was interested to know more. She said the congressman had been approached last year to be part of the CTE Caucus and he was looking for local advocates in his district. The aide said “I think I’ve found the perfect group!”

WLTI 2010 received uniformly high marks based on surveys of students and advisors with scores averaging between 4.25 and 4.75 on a five-point scale. We also received recommendations for improvement, and we’ll be working on those. That’s how we keep the ratings high, but when we see the advisors’ rating of 4.71 to the question “did the training offered meet students’ needs?” we believe we’re on the right track. Congratulations go to the entire staff. We’ll just have to do it again.

Tags:
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

Highlights

November 1st, 2010
  • I spoke during the North American STEM Education Symposium held October 3 and 4 in Manchester, N.H. My presentation was on the Skill Connect Assessments and how they can be used to assess STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills. Approximately 150 STEM educators attended, and the presentation was well received. As a matter of fact, one member of the audience who identified herself as a school administrator stood up and addressed the audience saying: “These are the best assessments on the market. Check them out.”
  • Next stop was Graphics EXPO at McCormick Place in Chicago from October 4 to 7 at the invitation of Eileen Cassidy and Ralph Nappi of NPES. Two SkillsUSA students were honored during the show. One was a Championships gold medalist for three straight years and the other student – who is from the same instructional program – was the NPES design contest winner. I met with executives from Heidelberg and Xerox while there. Xerox is very interested in the Skill Connect Assessments.
  • I conducted board training in Indianapolis, Ind. on October 12 and met with Julie Yeater, former SkillsUSA board president. Indiana is attempting to recruit more board members from industry. So, board member Ted Norman of MSSE and I made some calls, and I’m pleased to say that Snap-on, Caterpillar, Air Products, State Farm and Lowe’s have all expressed interest in having their local representatives serve on state association boards across the country.
  • During our last staff meeting, we received several pieces of good news. Six sites have been selected and mentors identified for the YouthBuild grant project. A meeting is scheduled with U.S. Department of Labor officials to discuss the project. The Alumni Coordinating Committee met here in Leesburg recently. Alumni membership is now over 17,300, and Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin alumni are working on their constitutions to establish their state associations. We’re writing a contract with The Center for Energy Workforce Development to develop a new assessment for the center using our employability skills assessment and engineering assessment and cross walking both to the Career Skills Education Program. The Center is working under a Gates Foundation grant. Staff reported on excellent meetings in Kansas City with the IBEW, Teamsters and the Kauffman Foundation, among others.
  • And, membership is up 13,248 over last year at this time and 1,139 Skill Connect Assessments have been sold this year.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

CEO Champion of the Year Report

November 1st, 2010

On October 18,  the inaugural CEO Champion of the Year event in New York City honored Fortune 300 Air Products’ Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer John McGlade. The celebration was: “Amazing.” “Successful.” ”A whole new level for this association.” And, “This was the launch of a new national annual event for SkillsUSA to show the value of career and technical education.”

John McGlade and SkillsUSA studentsOver 300 national and international corporate executives, community leaders and CTE students and their teachers attended the reception and dinner in the Waldorf=Astoria Grand Ballroom. They were there to honor John McGlade and Air Products’ support for career and technical education and SkillsUSA. As reported in the Allentown, Pa. Morning Call: “John McGlade . . . [who] studied civil engineering at what the school district then called its vocational-technical school – was honored Monday as one of the programs’ chief national boosters . . . He credits technical education with giving him a leg up on his career.”

“Our association with SkillsUSA is one of the most important partnerships we can have as a corporation for a number of reasons,” said McGlade. “It helps drive career and technical education in the United States. It mirrors our values around community involvement, particularly in education, and the importance of integrity, safety and environmental stewardship in the workplace. And it provides us access to top-quality technical talent for our plants and operations around the globe. Working side by side with SkillsUSA students in high school and college really allows companies like Air Products to develop the talent and traits we desire most for our own needs and for the good of our society,” McGlade said.

Senator Michael B. Enzi, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions wrote in part: “You are receiving this award because you have been leading the best way – by example. Because of your achievements, you are now able to provide the assurance that students of all ages need – that there will be opportunities for them to pursue that will lead them to careers that will be both challenging and rewarding.”

Also honoring McGlade with remarks during the evening: Tony Pedregon, NHRA World Funny Car Champion; Bob Black, vice president of Morris Black &Sons; Greg Rintala, Snap-on Industrial and chair of the SkillsUSA Youth Development Foundation; Keanna Mosley, a SkillsUSA gold medalist and now Air Products employee in Texas who tied together the value of SkillsUSA experience and her career; and, Karen Ward, state association director of SkillsUSA Massachusetts and the Massachusetts state officers. Diane Donaher of Bethlehem, Pa. was master of ceremonies. The fabulous Herald Trumpeters and Bagpipe Corps of the Liberty High School Grenadier Band – McGlade’s alma mater in Bethlehem, Pa. — began the festivities with a trumpet fanfare and a bagpipe and drum parade into the ballroom.

Under McGlade’s leadership, Air Products has integrated support for SkillsUSA. Air Product employees serve as technical committee members and judges for the SkillsUSA Championships, on task forces and boards of directors for state and local chapters and on the Youth Development Foundation and national board of directors. The company provides financial support for SkillsUSA programs and initiatives such the Alumni & Friends Association.

Named among the sponsors for the event: ArvinMeritor; Automotive Service Excellence; Bartha; Bosch; Capital Blue Cross; CareerSafe; Carhartt, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP; eGroup; Embassy Bank; intelitek; Irwin Tools; JPMorganChase; Kansas City Convention & Visortors Bureau; the Lehigh Valley Council: Lehigh Valley Health Network; the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs; Lehigh University; MacKenzie Partners, Inc.;Mercury Publishing;The Mundy Companies; PPL; Perella Weinberg Partners; Sard Verbinnen & Co.; Snap-on; St. Louis Carpenters District Council; St. Luke’s Hospital and Health Network; and, Toyota.

In his remarks, McGlade challenged SkillsUSA and the corporations represented in the ballroom to find the next CEO Champion of the Year so SkillsUSA’s network will continue to grow serving students and the nation. Proceeds from the dinner – in excess of $300,000 – will be used to support mission-related activities such as the Alumni & Friends Association.

A native of Bethlehem, Pa., McGlade took classes in civil engineering technology at the Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School during his sophomore, junior and senior years. He is a graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, where he earned a B.S. degree in industrial engineering in 1976 and an M.B.A. in 1980. McGlade joined Air Products in 1976 in the company’s Career Development Program and held increasingly responsible management positions.  He became president and chief operating officer in 2007 and was named chairman of the board in 2008.

The ceremony was streamed live via the Internet. A highlight video with be posted on the SkillsUSA Web site soon. To see photos of the event and to see the printed program journal under downloads please go to http://www.skillsusa.org/supporters/ceochampion.shtml.

Congratulations and thanks go to Laurie Gostley-Hackett, Corporate Relations for Air Products and her team and to Chris Powell, senior development officer at SkillsUSA and his team for their leadership of the event.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

WorldSkills London 2011

November 1st, 2010

We have selected 16 WorldTeam members to date. SkillsUSA will field its largest team yet with as many as 24 competitors competing in 22 contest areas. WorldTeam members will compete for the first time in four new contest areas – beauty therapy, graphic design, restaurant service and Web design.

WorldSkills London will host the 41st WorldSkills Competitions in London, England, October 5-8, 2011. The competitions will be held at the ExCel London Exhibition and Conference Center. The contest organizers are expecting more than 1,000 competitors from 53 countries competing in 41 official competitions and 5 demonstration contests. For specific information regarding the program, schedules, housing, etc., visit: www.worldskillslondon2011.com.

To view WorldTeam photos and bios, visit: www.skillsusa.org/compete/worldteam.shtml.

Tags: ,
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

Medalist Photos

November 1st, 2010

If you are interested in receiving a free digital photo of the medalists  from the 2010 SkillsUSA Championships, please e-mail Jane Short at jshort@skillsusa.org.

Tags:
Posted in Executive Perspectives | No Comments »

« Older Entries