Here at SkillsUSA, we admire and respect what you do, and we are here to assist you on your journey of establishing your chapter.
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 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. You can write a letter or request a meeting with your administrator to secure their support for this school year. SkillsUSA Letterhead, a chapter SkillsUSA logo generator, photos and PowerPoint templates 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 information directly into your syllabus to illustrate its importance.
SkillsUSA activities and programs develop students in three distinct areas: personal skills, workplace skills and technical skills that are grounded in academics. Families will appreciate that their students are becoming more employable and gaining a competitive advance in the job market through their SkillsUSA experiences — no matter what their future career.
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 Toolkit includes the Program of Work Launch Activity Guides, videos and resources to
help you 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 SkillsUSA Framework Certification, CTE Knowledge Certification, and Building Self-Motivation in Student Leaders.
Advisor Professional Development: A variety of training opportunities, from webinars to classroom to multi-day sessions, there are a lot of options for differing training needs.
Register your student members today to ensure they take advantage of all their membership benefits throughout the year. There are two resources you can utilize to walk you through the process of registering yourself and your students as members:
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 additi
onal 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, in-person or hybrid 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.
Local chapters officers can receive additional training by participating an Elevate offered in the fall. Elevate is an interactive virtual experience for local chapter officer teams that focuses on building successful chapters by equipping officers with the skills to lead and serve their chapter members.
Now that you’ve established your officer team let’s prepare to recruit members.
Recruitment Week is designed to empower chapter leaders to recruit potential new members through a series of activities and events which 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. The meeting times and locations can take a variety of forms to meet the needs of your student body. 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.
Other Resources
SkillsUSA FrameworkEvery 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 rate themselves in each of the Essential Elements. This assessment will assist your chapter members in identifying their strengths and weaknesses allowing your chapter to create and plan the Program of Work with intentionality.
Advisors are able to receive an aggregated report of all chapter members for use in planning their chapter’s Program of Work and/or the SkillsUSA Framework skill-building lessons. To receive your chapter’s report, please 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 Absorb, our Learning Management System.
Resources
Throughout the year, SkillsUSA will offer free, online learning. These virtual or online sessions are designed to teach participants to immediately strengthen their chapters. Topics include starting a chapter, membership recruitment, managing successful chapter meetings and how to maneuver the SkillsUSA registration system.
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. Chapter officers can send an invitation to administrators, deans or faculty members inviting them to bring greetings to the members at an upcoming chapter meeting or observe an activity or service project. This will give administrators an opportunity to see student members in action using their leadership skills. Have a chapter officer follow up by sending a thank-you card.
Your students are the stars of your organization, so don’t miss any opportunity to spread the message about their success and involvement in SkillsUSA activities and programs. Local newspapers and TV stations appreciate positive stories to share with their communities. Continuously consider new ways to keep stakeholders involved and informed about your chapter.
The Chapter Excellence Program (CEP) is the single best way to build a successful SkillsUSA chapter. CEP recognizes achievement as it relates to the integration of the SkillsUSA Framework in chapter Program of Work (PoW) activities. As a chapter’s yearly action plan, the Program of Work is at the heart of student learning and employability development. By using the Framework as a guide, chapters have a blueprint for creating relevant activities that encourage participation and foster an understanding of student learning attained during each activity. The Framework’s focus on intentional learning turns the Program of Work into more than just a planning tool. When you use the Framework, the Program of Work becomes the vital conduit that links students to the application of personal, workplace and technical skills demanded by industry, the SkillsUSA trifecta for student success!
Every chapter is encouraged to participate in CEP, and there are three award levels to recognize program involvement. The first two levels are acknowledged by a chapter’s state association, and the third level is recognized nationally. Each level is designed to give chapters a benchmark for success and future improvement, leading to stronger chapters and more prepared students. The more a chapter applies the Framework, the greater the chance for CEP honors.
Resources
Introduce your student members to the new SkillsUSA theme, Champion Your Future, and hang the posters from your SkillsUSA Membership Kit in a prominent location in the classroom or the school hallway. These posters help to raise awareness of SkillsUSA and generate excitement among students to become a SkillsUSA member.
Chapter in Action CalendarThe SkillsUSA Chapter in Action 2025–2026 calendar is a visual poster and guide to chapter activity that provides an overview of the events, conferences and programs available for SkillsUSA members. It provides workspace for your chapter members to plan their year. Participation in SkillsUSA includes the opportunity to engage in local, state and national events throughout the year.
On the SkillsUSA Chapter in Action calendar, activities are listed for each month. Use the calendar stickers in the Membership Kit to mark dates for upcoming events. Review the activities for each month, select some for your chapter, and then place a sticker on the calendar as a visual reminder of upcoming events. 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.