SkillsUSA is pleased to announce we have added the American Express card as a form of payment for any purchases with SkillsUSA. The American Express card can also be used for donations to our Youth Development Foundation.
American Express
August 15th, 2009Highlights
June 15th, 2009- It appears we’re still on track for a record attendance and the largest ever National Leadership and Skills Conference. We’re up 100 competitors from last year with about 5,400 and that’s after cutting back on some contests. We’ve picked up a few more TECHSPO exhibitors. The press kit and the trade releases are both online at www.skillsusa.org/about/news.shtml.
- Staff and I had a good series of meetings at the U.S. Department of Labor on May 20. It appears we may have the Skill Connect Assessments listed among the DOL’s list of approved assessments. There’s also interest in SkillsUSA models for instruction.
- Speaking of the Skill Connect Assessments, on Wednesday the 27th we received an update on sales. In the 53 days on the market, 1459 assessments have been sold. They’ve been used in 23 states. The Employability assessment is the most popular with Welding and Advertising Design second and third. Staff reports that we will have 36 Skill Connect Assessments ready for test-drive demonstrations during conference.
- ASE reports that the three automotive assessments we’re doing together have sold beyond expectations. On May 21, they had 21,478 tests assigned and the vast majority of them had been taken.
- And, I’m happy to report we have a new member on the Youth Development Foundation, Lynn Scheitrum, who is the manager for Talent Management and Central Staffing for Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. We look forward to having her with us.
Letter to the Obama Administration
May 1st, 2009I want to again express SkillsUSA’s appreciation to the Youth Development Foundation members who stepped up to sign a letter to the Obama administration and to Congress to show their support. The letter was sent by ACTE and a final copy can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/cwwfxe.
ACTE developed a release and then our communications office sent it through VOCUS to education trades. Education Week wrote about it. A link to the article follows: http://tinyurl.com/cmzsxp
Highlights
March 15th, 2009- On March 4, I was back in Washington at the National Press Club for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) event announcing the Manufacturing Skills Certification System. Board member Emily DeRocco moderated. That only seemed fair. After all, the whole initiative came out of her shop at NAM. It was great to meet with old friends and leaders of sponsoring organizations including Steve Mendes of the National Institute for Metalworking Skills, Leo Reddy of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing and Ray Shook of the American Welding Society. For the NAM news release, please click on http://www.nam.org/NewsFromtheNAM/SkillsCertificationSystem.aspx.
- Our long-time friend Rocco Marano, now retired from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, stopped by on February 26 to talk about a new project he’s taken on with the Energy Education Foundation. The foundation is working to get students involved in local and online initiatives for energy and Rocco believes SkillsUSA is a natural fit.
- In current travel news, board member and YDF Chairman Greg Rintala visited the national center recently to review some things for the finance committee and to work on the agenda for the YDF meeting in California.
- And, I just returned from Atlanta where Lowe’s and Kobalt Tools, in partnership with SkillsUSA staff, kicked off the new Tough Tools for Cool Schools program on March 6. Lowe’s is donating more than $300,000 worth of Kobalt tools to 500 SkillsUSA building and construction trades programs across the country. The first set of tools was delivered by three-time NASCAR champion, Jimmie Johnson to Lovejoy High School just prior to the March 8 Kobalt Tools 500 NASCAR Spring Cup Series race. Johnson’s No. 48 Impala SS will also showcase a SkillsUSA logo and a special Tough Tools for Cool Schools paint scheme when he races on April 5 at the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Special thanks to SkillsUSA Georgia director Gayle Silvey for her work on this event.
Highlights
March 1st, 2009There is a great deal going on here, but almost all of it is moving so think of this as the motion-capture edition of SkillsUSA events as they race by toward completion.
We had a good Webcast on February 10 in celebration of SkillsUSA Week, and it is archived at http://web.ganconference.com/?meeting=3913885. It contains lots of good information on the state of SkillsUSA including some of our advocacy with the Obama administration and instruction on using the SkillsUSA advocacy site to write to Congress among other things. We sent out an e-mail to our active advisor list wishing them a happy SkillsUSA week and giving them a link to the 30-minute Webcast.
We’ve had three good conference calls with Lowe’s recently. One focused on Lowe’s hiring SkillsUSA graduates including use of the N.E.W. job board on the SkillsUSA Web site. Another call revolved around support of the National Leadership and Skills Conference and the third was on the new sustainability competition.
On February 19, I had a promising meeting with the president/CEO of K2Share, the company that manages CareerSafe, the online OSHA 10-hour card training and testing system. Larry Teverbaugh’s company makes a donation to SkillsUSA for every student who signs up for CareerSafe, and Larry is looking for ways to increase his financial support for SkillsUSA.
On Monday, February 23, I joined some other staff members for a visit at the Employment and Training Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor. We reported on progress of the Work Force Ready System and on the vulnerable community pilot sites under Champions for Change. We were joined by Kisha Ajose from the Miami Job Corps Center and by Dave Daly and Rick Gonzalez from ASTRACOR in Alexandria. I also met with Esther Johnson, national director of Job Corps, and she got a clear picture on how SkillsUSA can meet the needs of Job Corps sites.
On March 5, we’ll have a meeting of the new ambassadors for SkillsUSA—top-level executives who will help build our corporate networking so we can reach higher levels of funding. The work of the ambassadors will be a big topic for the Youth Development Foundation when we’re at Toyota in California later in March.
