Stories @ TCAT

Career and technical education students from across Tennessee brought home medals from the 2023 SkillsUSA Tennessee State Leadership & Skills Conference.

The 2023 state championships were held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, April 16-19. The annual SkillsUSA conference was a showcase of career and technical education (CTE) students in our state where more than 1,800 outstanding students competed in 110 different trade, technical and leadership events.

During the state SkillsUSA competition, the CTE students worked against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in occupations such as electronics, computer-aided drafting, precision machining, medical assisting and culinary arts. All contests are run by SkillsUSA with the help of industry, trade associations and labor organizations, testing competencies set by industry. In addition, leadership contestants demonstrated their skills, which included extemporaneous speaking and conducting meetings using parliamentary procedure. Top student winners received gold, silver and bronze medallions. Many also received prizes such as tools of their trade and scholarships to further their careers and education. The annual championships event is for middle school, high school and college-level students who are members of SkillsUSA.

SkillsUSA Tennessee Postsecondary has a statewide membership of more than 10,000 students and instructors, representing the community and technical colleges of Tennessee. Members have consistently demonstrated their expertise and professionalism while participating throughout the year in a variety of leadership and competitive conferences.

SkillsUSA’s mission is to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. SkillsUSA improves the quality of the nation’s future skilled workforce through the development of SkillsUSA Framework skills that include personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics. Our vision is to produce the most highly skilled workforce in the world, providing every member the opportunity for career success.

State first-place (gold medal) winners are eligible to compete at the national SkillsUSA Championships, which will be held in Atlanta in June. The full list of Gold, Silver, and Bronze medalists may be viewed here.

For more information about this year’s events and the winners, contact:

Shania Willyard, SkillsUSA Postsecondary State Director, at shania.willyard@tbr.edu.

About SkillsUSA

SkillsUSA is a nonprofit partnership of education and industry founded in 1965 to strengthen our nation’s skilled workforce. Driven by employer demand, SkillsUSA helps students develop necessary personal and workplace skills along with technical skills grounded in academics. This SkillsUSA Framework empowers every student to succeed at work and in life, while helping to close the skills gap in which millions of positions go unfilled. Through SkillsUSA’s championships program and curricula, employers have long ensured schools are teaching relevant technical skills, and with SkillsUSA’s new credentialing process, they can now assess how ready potential employees are for the job. SkillsUSA has members nationwide in high schools, colleges and middle schools, covering over 130 trade, technical and skilled service occupations, and is recognized by the U.S. departments of Education and Labor as integral to career and technical education. We have served 14.2 million members since 1965. For more information: www.skillsusa.org.