- The SkillsUSA WorldTeam trained on Saturday, June 27 in areas such as time management and interpersonal communications skills that take on heightened importance in the WorldSkills Competition. Laurent Thibault of the WorldSkills International Board attended the NLSC and said publicly. “We have always heard about the SkillsUSA Championships. Now that I’ve seen it I can say this is the largest and greatest display of skills anywhere in the world.” The Championships is featured on the home page of WorldSkills International at www.worldskills.org.
- The Skill Connect Assessments booth was a hopping place during conference. Frequently all 20 demonstration computers were in use with teachers test-driving the 34 assessments on display. Reactions were extremely positive. Over 500 teachers stopped by for the demonstrations.
- The Sustainability Solutions contest is off to a good start. Nine student teams displayed their talents and sustainability projects. The projects ranged from green building projects, alternative fuel systems and green blogs and Web sites. We were happy that four companies joined the national technical committee and that the committee chair was former national officer Grayson DeGraff, now a manager with Lowe’s.
- The new Professional Development Program (PDP) curriculum online – Levels 1 and 2 – will be ready for release at the beginning of school. Thanks to Air Products for providing the resources to revise and reprint PDP and to Lowe’s for the resources to move it to an interactive online learning environment.
- Oh, and we do share the news about our students. News releases on our medalists were e-mailed to 1,507 daily newspapers and 2,034 non-daily papers across the country. News releases for the Skill Point recipients were e-mailed to 1,563 daily papers and 3,011 non-daily papers. Word is that reporters are calling and the news stories are coming in at a rapid clip.
- People say: “Now that conference is over it must be nice to get a rest.” There’s no rest. We have a lot coming up very quickly including: national officer training; the state association directors’ meeting and board meeting in Charleston; the WorldSkills Competition and YDF meeting in Calgary; the launch of the Engineering Alliance; and, the Washington Leadership Training Institute. All of that is in the next two months.
Highlights
July 15th, 2009Highlights
May 15th, 2009- Beginning with the summer issue, award-winning SkillsUSA Champions magazine is now an “e-zine” in addition to its print edition. The digital publication looks just like its print twin. The reader can even “flip” the pages. Web links and e-mail links are active, and we can also embed video. To give it a review, go to www.skillsusa.org/champions/.
- Things are moving right along on the WorldSkills Competition (WSC) and on SkillsUSA WorldTeam. On the evening of April 28, I hosted a one-hour Web conference with 15 of our WSC experts who will be the advisors for WorldTeam members and then judges during the event in Calgary. We have several new representatives and trainers. Don Hatton led the call. Information on the team is online at www.skillsusa.org/compete/worldteam.shtml, and we have a brand new Web site to help build awareness – and we hope raise some money – through social networking at www.everydayrealheroes.org. Thanks go to staff for leading the “everyday heroes” initiative.
- Tim Zilke, executive director of ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) and staff members came by the office for a meeting on April 28 to discuss marketing for the new National Automotive Student Skills Standards Assessment (NA3SA) to the transportation cluster. ASE opened the test window in mid-March and has already sold over 5,000 assessments which is ahead of expectations. We’ve been promoting NA3SA along with the Work Force Ready System, and now we’re discussing several more strategies. Here’s the link to NA3SA: www.NA3SA.com.
- On April 29, staff and I met with Ralph Nappi, president, NPES, The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies and Eileen Cassidy, director, GAERF (Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation) to discuss the Work Force Ready System, and our graphic communications assessment, in particular. We’re currently exploring the possibility of having our assessment lead directly into the PrintED certification program.
- Another meeting last week was with Gerard Katz, president, National Foundation for Energy Conservation. We’re looking into a partnership to support student activities and competitions that support energy conservation.
- Thanks to Youth Development Foundation member Kelly Persons of Lowe’s, I was part of a conference call with Pam Koner, founder of a charitable organization called Family-to-Family. The organization connects “families with more with families with less” and we’ve agreed that SkillsUSA will become a resource by posting her organization on our Web site for chapters to consider when planning community service activities. By the way, Pam will be featured on Larry King Live and be recognized as a CNN Hero within the next few weeks, so you just might be hearing more about her and Family-to-Family.
- We have been getting questions on the Flu pandemic and whether or not it will close down the national conference. I understand and appreciate the calls. After all, some schools have closed. Our position is that SkillsUSA will watch for alerts from the CDC and adhere to travel restrictions. Of course, if any individual is sick, we want that individual to stay home. We have an official statement, but I hope it doesn’t have to be used much, especially since the issue is now.
Highlights
May 1st, 2009- We recently heard some great news from Connecticut state director Heidi Balch. Heidi reported that the Connecticut State Board of Education recently approved the Connecticut Technical High School System board subcommittee’s recommendation to add the district’s eleventh grade Career Development course as a one-credit graduation requirement. The Career Development course is SkillsUSA’s Professional Development Program (PDP) curriculum. Their Career Development “is a sequence of ten units that provides students opportunities to develop essential skills to excel in the SkillsUSA competition but, more importantly, be prepared for entry-level employment and to meet the established criteria for the required senior trade technology portfolio.”
- The communications department sent an overall WorldSkills Competition/SkillsUSA WorldTeam release to 864 business and education print reporters, 1,906 radio and television news stations (local and regional) and 362 education trade magazines on April 9. The release appears on our Web site at http://skillsusa.org/downloads/PDF/pressreleases/worldteam09.pdf. We had an immediate phone call from the Lars Larson radio show, and I did a 10-minute live interview with Lars on “Live with Lars” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 10.
SkillsUSA Launches Multi-Media Campaign for Our WorldTeam
May 1st, 2009SkillsUSA has sent out a mass e-mail as a part of a new campaign to raise awareness for our World Team. If you haven’t already, please open your e-mail and take a moment to review this important message.
We ask that you help spread the word in a number of ways. Please forward the message to anyone who may be in a position to support SkillsUSA WorldTeam, post the contained video to your Facebook page or on other social networking sites you may use, and provide a link to the message on your company’s Web site.
By helping us go viral and broaden the reach of this critical campaign to your circle of influence, we all have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the young people who represent America’s hope and our future. The Web site link is www.everydayrealheroes.org. For campaign questions, please contact Chris Powell at cpowell@skillsusa.org.
Shine the light on real heroes. They’re counting on you.
Pen Pal Opportunity for Our Students
April 15th, 2009We recently received an e-mail request from Calgary, Canada schools. They would like WorldSkills member countries/regions to participate in a pen pal program with Calgary schools. There are 152 elementary and middle schools that are involved with the One School, One Country (OSOC) program. The participating schools are adapting their curriculum to learn about a WorldSkills member country/region’s values, traditions and culture. They believe this program will provide the 50,000 students with a look to their future and the possibility of a career in skilled trades or technologies.
School system Calgary elementary schools are grades one (1) to six (6). Middle schools vary with grades between one (1) and nine (9). Their grade one (1) students are 5-6 years old while grade nine (9) students are 14/15 years old. The total number of students per school ranges from as little as 50 to as many as 800.
They are asking for any schools or classes that would like to exchange e-mails or letters with a Calgary school or class, to send the contact information to Debra Stark no later than May 1. The Pen Pal relationships should be set up by the first part of May. Debra’s e-mail address is debra.stark@worldskills2009.com.
