News

Assessments Soon Available!

Coming this spring are the first seven Skill Connect Assessments: Automated Manufacturing Technology, Commercial Baking, Computer Maintenance Technology, Cosmetology, Internetworking, Welding and Employability, which evaluates soft skills such as teamwork and communication. Look for another e-Newsletter from us to learn when you can log in to take one of the first assessments.

When will additional assessments be available? We’ll begin testing the next round of assessments in September, and you’ll be the first to know when they are available. SkillsUSA is collaborating with a team of four psychometricians with backgrounds in technical and occupations studies -- and conducting extensive field tests -- to ensure reliability of each assessment. We want to be sure you will have confidence that each assessment consistently measures students' abilities.

If you’re interested in serving as a field test site for future assessments, visit us online. Instructors leading each field test site will be prepared through webinars and other resources, and you can be on the cutting edge of ensuring our future work force has the tools they need to prove their abilities to employers.

Four more pilot sites selected

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grant supports not only the Work Force Ready System, but it also provides resources for six vulnerable communities to establish SkillsUSA chapters. The first two pilot sites were launched in Omaha and Chicago last year, and the committee recently selected the remaining four pilot sites:

Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District
Palmer, Alaska

Miami Job Corps Center
Miami Gardens, Florida

Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences
Detroit, Michigan

ASTRACOR
Alexandria, Virginia

Each site aims to provide students opportunities to develop technical and leadership skills through the successful model of local SkillsUSA programs. Among resources provided are brand new courses available through the online Advisor Essentials Training Library. These courses cover the fundamentals of chapter managements and are valuable for new and seasoned SkillsUSA leaders.

Message from SkillsUSA

For 40 years, we’ve been conducting industry-driven authentic assessments through our Championships. Our goal was simple: to lift students up by giving them the opportunity to prove what they could do and what they’d learned through their CTE programs. For validation of their instruction, we involved industry so students would be judged to industry standards by industry representatives.

We were left with a few questions:

• How can we leverage the expertise we’ve gathered so that more students could benefit?
• How could this industry-driven Championships assessment tool move from a hands-on competition structure to something with the same validity but more easily administered?
• How could we be sure that those new assessments include all aspects of instruction, and not just competencies for a contest?
• What’s more, how could the results be gathered and shared in a timely manner for program improvement and reporting?

The answer we’ve been working on is the Work Force Ready System. SkillsUSA is pulling together the expertise of our industry technical committees, education and testing consultants to create 48 online assessments in occupational areas. We found through independent research that in one-third of these areas, there is no industry assessment at all. We are indeed building a system designed to the needs of CTE that will be recognized by industry.

Three of the most important features are these:

1. The online assessments use videos, animations, drag and drop and other interactive methods that will allow students to focus on what they know and can do.
2. Students and instructors will receive immediate test results in all competencies tested. Students who successfully pass the assessment will receive a certificate replete with the corporate logos of organizations that designed the SkillsUSA Championships National Standards, which serve as a foundation for each assessment. This certificate is preliminary to industry certification and credentials.
3. And, we will also have an online virtual community of industry representatives and educators to continually improve and update the system.

Upcoming Events

May 30: First seven assessments launched!
June 23-27: National Leadership and Skills Conference; Kansas City, MO
September: Field testing begins for next set of assessments

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“In the first year of our SkillsUSA involvement, one student became the first SkillsUSA State Officer from OPS, and another won a state competition. Opportunities to develop leadership and technical skills in this program are unparalleled.”

- Ken Spellman, Career Education Coordinator of Omaha Public Schools

The Work Force Ready System is the way ahead for CTE programs that need to document technical attainment for Perkins compliance. It is the way ahead for instructors who need tools that are easy to use, documenting and identifying student progress and learning needs. The SkillsUSA Work Force Ready System helps students on the way ahead to potential career opportunities. Learn more about the Work Force Ready System at the 2008 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, held June 24-27 in Kansas City, Missouri. Be sure to visit the Work Force Ready System in the TECHSPO and around the conference at the Work Force Ready System Mobile!