SkillsUSA Week 2020 Highlights Advocacy in Washington, D.C.
Published: February 20, 2020
SkillsUSA staff and national officers carried out several advocacy events Feb. 4-5 as part of SkillsUSA Week and CTE Month.
On Feb. 4, 12 members of the national officer team, executive director Chelle Travis and select staff started the day at the Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, D.C., where SkillsUSA held a legislative breakfast. Invitations went to the six co-chairs of the House and Senate CTE Caucuses or their staff. Attending were: Rep. Glenn Thompson (Pa.) and his staff member Nick Rockwell; Brian Moulton from the office of Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.); Kerry McKittrick from the office of Rep. Jim Langevin (R.I.); and Sam Morgante, formerly with the offices of Rep. Langevin (R.I.), Rep. Krishnamoorthi (Ill.) and Rep. Lee (Nev.). Also attending were Casey Sacks, Margaret Romer and Richard Pettey from the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education; Mike Matthews from the Association for Career and Technical Education; and three of SkillsUSA’s business partners including Maureen Tholen, 3M; Jerry Ellner, Universal Technical Institute; and Greg Rintala, Snap On. SkillsUSA Executive Director Chelle Travis and Rep. Glenn Thompson spoke during the breakfast. SkillsUSA interviewed Rep. Thompson at the event.
Next was a meeting at the U.S. Department of Labor with John Pallasch, assistant secretary of the Employment and Training Administration and Robin Fernkas, acting deputy administrator. Joining the meeting was Principal Deputy Under Secretary Diane Auer Jones from the U.S. Department of Education. The group talked SkillsUSA programs and events, credentialing through the SkillsUSA Career Essentials suite, and SkillsUSA as a skills gap solution. After the meeting, there was a lunch for the partners, national officers and staff.
On Feb. 5, Chelle Travis, national officers Melissa Moreno and Miguel Nunez and staff members Craig Moore, Chris Cronbaugh and SkillsUSA Missouri director Joey Baker visited the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. Chelle and the national officers gave a presentation to the French Embassy’s Labor, Health and Social Welfare Department, members of the D.C. Lear International Committee Board and select workforce and labor staff from other embassies, including Spain, Sweden, Taiwan.
See a video recap of the DOL meeting, below:
Rep. Thompson shared his support of SkillsUSA in a speech to the U.S. House of Representatives that aired on C-SPAN. See the speech below:
For a video recap of the French Embassy visit, see below:
To see photo highlights of SkillsUSA Week in our Flickr album, go to: www.flickr.com/photos/62244799@N08/sets/72157712975858826
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.
A total of 51 SkillsUSA state association leaders gathered in Fort Worth, Texas last week for their annual State Directors Association (SDA) professional conference.
