Preparing for Career Competitions
New! Career Competitions:
The SkillsUSA organization will refer to the SkillsUSA Championships contests as career competitions moving forward. SkillsUSA Georgia wanted to clarify this with our advisors and student members.
Winning a SkillsUSA career competition and becoming a SkillsUSA Champion is an exciting prospect when becoming a SkillsUSA member! But what does the road to Nationals look like? On the next page is a layout of the progression from Local Career Competition to the National Leadership and Skills Conference.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Middle School members can compete in selected state career competitions! They will need to familiarize themselves with the technical standards located on the Absorb site here.
HOW TO PREPARE
Please see the Championship Lookup Tool, on our SkillsUSA Georgia website, to view specific dress code requirements and to access the Technical Standards. You can access the Championship Lookup Tool here. You can also visit our website to access this tool in the State Leadership & Skills Conference section. A final list of contest offerings will be available in November when the National SkillsUSA office provides this information to us.
TECHNICAL STANDARDS
What are Technical Standards? Technical Standards are the rules and guidelines of career competitions which are updated annually by the National SkillsUSA Staff. You will use your professional member credentials to access these standards. If you have questions about how to access these standards please reach out to our hotline operators at 844-875-4557 or operators@skillsusa.org.
Steps to access the Technical Standards can be followed here.
It is crucial that your student knows the technical standard for their career competition. Students will not be tested on every aspect of the technical standards at the State Leadership & Skills Conference. The Technical Standards provide all the information for career competitions that last over a 3-4 day span at the National Leadership & Skills Conference. Contest updates provide the information for a contest that is condensed to last 3-6 hours at SkillsUSA Georgia State Leadership & Skills Conference. It is the responsibility of the advisor to print and give a copy of the Technical Standards to their student competitor. It is also the responsibility of the advisor to check the contest updates listed in the Championship Lookup Tool on the SkillsUSA Georgia website here. The contest updates provide information that will be specific to the State Leadership & Skills Conference. The competitors also have access to the updates page in the Championship Lookup Tool. SkillsUSA Georgia suggests making your competitor aware of the process and empower your competitors to also monitor the updates page. It is imperative to your students' success. Please understand that the updates page is a living document. Our contest tech chairs are given a deadline to provide their updates, but sometimes deadlines are not met or extenuating circumstances may occur. SkillsUSA Georgia will not post any contest updates any later than two weeks prior to the SkillsUSA Georgia State Leadership & Skills Conference with the exception of an emergency.
GEORGIA ONLY CAREER COMPETITIONS
“Georgia Only” career competitions are held at the State Leadership & Skills Conference and do not advance to the National Leadership & Skills Conference. These career competitions are governed by their own rules and are not found in the official technical standards. These rules will be updated each year and are found in the Championship Lookup Tool here. Students can win bronze, silver, and gold in these contests!
SkillsUSA THEME
The SkillsUSA Theme will be released from our National SkillsUSA Office in July. The SkillsUSA theme can also be found on the national SkillsUSA website.
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LOCAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Career Competitions start at the local level. Advisors are welcome to determine the competitor as they see appropriate. SkillsUSA has a great resource called the Local Competition Guide. The guide can be found on SkillsUSA Absorb.
My local student has been identified and is ready to compete! Yay! What’s next?
REGION CHAMPIONSHIPS
Not all career competitions start at Region. Please review the career competitions offered in the Region Championships portion of this guide. Region competitions take place between December & February. The specific region competition date is dependent on what region you are in. Below are how the SkillsUSA Georgia regions are aligned.
You can also determine what region you are in by visiting the website here.
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place at region competitions are eligible to advance to the SkillsUSA Georgia State Leadership & Skills Conference.
The EXCEPTIONS to this rule are below:
• Broadcast News top sixteen will move to SLSC
• TeamWorks top ten teams from across the state will move to SLSC
• Welding Fabrication top eight teams from across the state will move to SLSC
My student placed 1st-3rd in a regional career competition! Yay! What’s next?
STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS OVERVIEW
The State Leadership & Skills Conference offers career competitions that are both “Georgia Only” and “National” career competitions. The State Leadership & Skills Conference is the biggest event of the year. Featuring the SkillsUSA State Championships, as well as delegate sessions and other leadership opportunities, you can’t afford to miss this exciting conference!
My student won GOLD in a national career competition! Yay! What’s next?
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS OVERVIEW
National career competitions allow students to advance to the National Leadership & Skills Conference if they place gold at the SkillsUSA Georgia State Leadership & Skills Conference. The conference is held in Atlanta, Georgia in the month of June. The NLSC packet with details is emailed post SLSC. Usually SkillsUSA releases NLSC information to the states on April 1st. Our state office immediately begins working to complete the NSLC information and will share it to our state delegation as soon as possible.