About Us

What is SkillsUSA?

SkillsUSA was founded in 1965 with the goal of giving students the opportunity to improve their skills for the future. SkillsUSA offers leadership development through officer positions at the chapter, state, and national level. Technical development is also offered through workshops and partnerships with industry leaders and the state and national leadership conferences.

SkillsUSA serves more than 335,000 students and instructors annually. This includes 19,500 instructors who join as professional members. Including alumni, SkillsUSA membership totals over 395,000. SkillsUSA has served more than 12.5 million annual members cumulatively since 1965.

Over the course of the last decade, SkillsUSA Idaho alone has served roughly 24,000 post-secondary and secondary students at steadily increasing rate. Because SkillsUSA Idaho works hand-in-hand with business and industry, students get the skills that Idaho employers want and need.

SkillsUSA Mission Statement

SkillsUSA empowers its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. We improve the quality of our 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.

What is CTE?

CTE stands for career and technical education. It combines academic and technical skills with knowledge and hands-on experience. Most schools have some form of CTE classes but not all of them have a way for students to apply that knowledge.

What is the Skills Gap?

The Skills gap is the difference between the amount of skilled workers in our workforce and the amount of jobs requiring those skills. Every year more jobs open that require more specialized skills but there are not enough workers with those skills to fill those jobs. By offering career and technical education in high school and college SkillsUSA is able to create workers with the skills needed to close that gap.

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Additional SkillsUSA Information

SkillsUSA Pledge

Upon my honor, I pledge:
To prepare myself by diligent study and ardent practice to become a worker whose services will be recognized as honorable by my employer and fellow workers.
To base my expectations of reward upon the solid foundation of service.
To honor and respect my vocation in such a way as to bring repute to myself.
And further, to spare no effort in upholding the ideals of SkillsUSA.

SkillsUSA Creed

• I believe in the dignity of work
• I believe in the American way of life
• I believe in education
• I believe in fair play
• I believe satisfaction is achieved by good work
• I believe in high moral and spiritual standards

SkillsUSA Colors

The colors red, white, blue, and gold represent the national SkillsUSA organization.

• Red and White represent the individual states and chapters.
• Blue represents the common union of the states and of the chapters.
• Gold represents the individual, the most important element of the organization.

SkillsUSA Emblem