Thank you for your commitment to student growth and success. As a SkillsUSA advisor of a virtual chapter you play a vital role in ensuring students have opportunities to lead, connect, and grow within an online format.
Virtual chapters offer full SkillsUSA benefits with flexibility and accessibility through remote learning environments, online schools, or hybrid programs. Through your leadership, members will develop real-world skills, participate in national programs, and engage in competitions and leadership activities that prepare them for success in the workforce.
This guide is designed specifically for virtual chapter advisors. It walks you through the steps to start and then manage a SkillsUSA chapter and provides helpful tools, templates, and ideas for building engagement in a virtual setting.
Here at SkillsUSA, we admire and respect what you do, and we are here to assist you on your journey of establishing your chapter. Please take a moment to view a Welcome video from our Executive Director, Chelle Travis.
The information and resources that follow will act as a guide to set you up for success as an advisor of a SkillsUSA chapter.Your SkillsUSA journey begins now!
Connecting to the SkillsUSA Customer Care Team will ensure that your questions on how to start a new virtual chapter, engage chapter members and strengthen an existing chapter are answered. Give them a call to ask questions or ask where to locate resources.
Phone: 844–875–4557
Email: customercare@skillsusa.org
Successful SkillsUSA chapters work with school administrators from the onset. It is essential to receive permission and support from your administration to start a SkillsUSA chapter. As you correspond with your administrator to secure their support, use the chapter SkillsUSA logo generator, photos, and PowerPoint templates which can be found in the SkillsUSA Brand Portal.
Once you have received support from your school administration, connect with your SkillsUSA State Director. You can find a directory on the SkillsUSA website or call the Customer Care Team to get connected. if you haven’t done so in the past, both a SkillsUSA charter and constitution must be filled out and submitted to your SkillsUSA State Director to make your chapter official!
Don’t miss this fundamental opportunity to start the year off right! Ensure that students’ families understand that SkillsUSA will be an integral component of your career and technical program this year by placing “who we are” information directly into your syllabus to illustrate its importance.
The SkillsUSA Framework develops students in three distinct components: Personal Skills, Workplace Skills and Technical Skills Grounded in Academics. When the Framework is integrated into the Program of Work, which outlines intentional planning and execution of chapter activities, students gain meaningful experiences that prepare them for success. Parents will appreciate that their students are becoming employable and gaining a competitive advantage in the job market by developing the Essential Elements through their involvement in CTE and SkillsUSA experiences.
Resources
Registering yourself as a professional member will allow you access to incredible professional member benefits. Review the process below on how to register as a professional member:
Take a moment to watch a short video on the impact of becoming a SkillsUSA Advisor:
Now that you’ve established your chapter, it’s time to register yourself as a professional member. There are two resources that you can utilize to walk you through the process of registering yourself as a professional member:
Registering yourself as a professional member gives you access to the following resources and much more:
SkillsUSA Framework Integration Toolkit: The Framework Integration Toolkit has every-thing you need to ensure career readiness for students including videos, lesson plans, experiential activities and more.
SkillsUSA Program of Work Toolkit: The Program of Work
Virtual Activity Guide provides plans to help your chapter implement effective activities.
Xplore: A chapter curriculum for members to mentor and engage middle school students in STEM learning while creating an opportunity for future recruitment.
SkillsUSA Championships: The SkillsUSA Championships Technical Standards are the official rules and regu-lations for each of the competitions that are part of the championships. This resource is updated annually and is available in early October!
E-Courses: These are short modules on the SkillsUSA Framework Certification, CTE Knowledge Certification, and Building Self-Motivation in Student Leaders.
Advisor Professional Development: A variety of training opportunities to help you become a pro at leading your officers and chapter members, from webinars to multi- day sessions, there are a plethora of online options for differing training needs
Register your student members today to ensure they take advantage of all their mem-bership benefits throughout the year. There are two resources that you can utilize to walk you through the process of registering:
Registering as a student member gives the student access to the following:
Access to Events: Recruitment Materials, Elevate, SkillsUSA Week, SkillsUSA National Signing Day, Leverage and the National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC).
Access to Programs: Chapter Excellence Program, Xplore, Presidential Volunteer Service Award, Career Essentials Suites, SkillsUSA Championships and Scholarships.
As a special membership incentive, instructors who register at least 15 student members in one technical program plus one or more professionals by November 15 will receive
a free SkillsUSA resource.
Don’t miss out on a special chapter member-ship recruitment incentive. When you join an additional 25 members over and above what you registered last year by November 15, your chapter will receive a SkillsUSA Framework podium banner.
If you register 50 or more members than you had last year by November 15, your chapter will receive two SkillsUSA Framework podium banners.
Electing chapter officers allows your chapter to move from advisor-led to advisor-supported. Students take the lead with SkillsUSA. Serving as a chapter officer is one of the best ways for students to hone their workplace and leadership skills.
SkillsUSA’s Chapter Officer Election Toolkit will assist you in conducting a SkillsUSA chapter officer election process in a virtual manner. It is important to honor the work and commitment of the students applying for chapter office and to conduct a process that is fair and equitable for all candidates, and most importantly, identifies the candidates that can best serve your local chapter in advancing in quality while engaging all members. The actions described in this guide are suggestions and options based on experiences gathered from chapters. Each chapter may need to adjust or modify the actions presented to fit unique needs or time periods. Each chapter should also be familiar with the state officer election process for their specific state, as they may wish to mimic portions of it.
Included in this toolkit:
Train a strong officer team with the SkillsUSA CHARGE Officer Video Series. Charge is a weekly chapter officer video series that covers topics that chapter officers will find useful in the day-to-day management of their local SkillsUSA chapters. Each Charge video features an activity guide to guide chapter officer growth and development. There are 12 episodes, and each episode contains a video and downloadable activity guide. Topics include Getting to Know Your Team, SkillsUSA Framework and Chapter Officer Roles.
Elevate is an interactive virtual experience for training chapter officers. Offered in the fall, focusing on building successful chapters by equipping officer with the skills to lead and serve their chapter members. The goal of this engaging event is that chapters leave having developed their Program of Work
Now that you’ve established your officer team let’s prepare to recruit members.
Recruitment Week is designed to support chapter leaders in connecting with potential new members through a series of activities and events that promote SkillsUSA. You choose your week, review the available recruitment resources for advisors and students and get ready to recruit. SkillsUSA wants to recognize achievements of chapters that host a Recruitment Week and recruitment activities.
After your week is finished, you can submit your Recruitment Week work for the opportunity to be spotlighted on SkillsUSA Champions digital hub.
Use the Membership Form for Registration System Data Collection to gather all the information needed to join your students on the SkillsUSA member portal.
Additional Recruitment Resources/IdeasIt is essential to hold meetings on a regular basis and to inform students when meetings are scheduled. Meetings are best attended if kept to the same time and day. Because of the integral nature of SkillsUSA to CTE programs, many chapters will hold their meetings during the school day within each class period to give everyone an opportunity to be involved. However, it is fine to get creative and hold chapter meetings when they work best for your students and their school day.
Goals for chapter meetings may include:
Resources
Sample chapter meeting agenda and officer roles are resources included in Leveraging Your Leadership with Effective Chapter Meetings available for purchase in the SkillsUSA Educational Resource Store.
Additional Chapter Meeting Resources/IdeasCustomize a social media post and student email to be sent out at least one week prior to meeting. Include your agenda items.
Ideas for engagement — Fun Introductions, Essential Element Spotlight, Career Exploration, Showcase of Skills, Virtual Tours, Collaboration, Committee Work, etc.
Other Resources
Every aspect of our program is built around the SkillsUSA Framework, which emphasizes Personal Skills, Workplace Skills and Technical Skills Grounded in Academics. The purpose of the Framework is to provide a common language to communicate what students learn in the classroom and laboratory. Show this special video to chapter members as an introduction to the SkillsUSA Framework.
Have each member complete the Essential Element self-evaluation to identify their strengths and weaknesses within the SkillsUSA Framework. Then your chapter can intentionally integrate the Essential Elements into your Program of Work.
Advisors are able to receive an aggregated report of all chapter member responses. To do so, when members complete the assessment, they must include your chapter ID. For a final report contact SkillsUSA’s Customer Care team.
The SkillsUSA Program of Work is divided into six categories. These categories define areas of focus for a well-run chapter in the same way a well-run business may be divided into different divisions. Each category or committee has specific responsibilities, but all contribute to the overall success of the SkillsUSA chapter.
Resources, videos and activities can all be found on the SkillsUSA website and many more resources are within your Program of Work Toolkit. This is provided when you join as a Professional member and is located in our Learning Management System.
Resources
At the local, state, and national levels are rewarding activities within the Work Experiences category of the Program of Work.
Check out the multitude of competitions your students can be involved in.
Today, job-specific skills alone are not enough to compete in today’s job market. To begin and advance in a successful career, students need to be career-ready. The Career Essential Suite provides turn-key curricula that teachers implement to ensure their students are fully prepared to succeed in the world of work. The Suite is a collection of four curricula options, based on learner age. Learners will be engaged in defining, implemen-ting and measuring their career-readiness skills. Once students successfully complete the program they will earn an industry-recognized credential.
Throughout the year, SkillsUSA will offer free, online learning for advisors. These virtual or online sessions are designed to teach instructors important on-time information to immediately help strengthen their chapters. Example topics include: starting a chapter, membership recruitment, managing successful chapter meetings and how to maneuver the SkillsUSA registration system.
Check back regularly for added opportunities
Resources
As you kick off your school year and get students engaged in the chapter, be sure to share the excitement and success of your events with your school administrators and guidance counselors and the public. Chapter officers send invitations to administrators, deans or faculty members inviting them to an upcoming chapter meeting or to observe an activity. This will give administrators an opportunity to see student members in action using their leadership skills.
Every chapter is encouraged to participate in the Chapter Excellence Program (CEP) where there are three award levels recognized. Each level is designed to give chapters a benchmark for success and future improvement, leading to stronger chapters and more prepared students. The more the Framework Essential Elements are integrated into planned activities, the greater the chance for CEP honors.
Resources
Use the digital images supplied to help raise awareness of SkillsUSA and generate excitement among students to become a SkillsUSA member. Each year introduce your student members to the new SkillsUSA theme. Use these digital resources during recruitment efforts as well as throughout the year to encourage members to be active in SkillsUSA.
Chapter in Action CalendarThe SkillsUSA Chapter in Action 2025–2026 calendar calendar is a visual poster and can be used as a guide for creating your own chapter’s online calendar. Provide a calendar for your chapter depicting the events, conferences, and programs available for SkillsUSA members throughout the year.
On the SkillsUSA Chapter in Action calendar, activities are listed for each month and updated as plans are made or changed. Your officers and committee members will maintain an online calendar as they plan their yearly Program of Work. Early in the year add state and national SkillsUSA events and deadlines you are aware of and include the local activities you are planning so members have the chance to plan to participate. Post the calendar where all members have daily access as a reminder of upcoming events. If you have a local SkillsUSA web page, link your live calendar there. Download the calendar resources here.
In keeping with a tradition of respect for the individuality of our members and our role in workforce development, SkillsUSA strives to ensure inclusive participation in all of our programs, partnerships and employment opportunities.
