What is SkillsUSA? Have you ever wondered or heard about it? Well I’m here to let you know all about Skills right here at Timberline and their connection to the Dennis Technical Education Center (DTEC). I decided to interview Mrs. Thorpe, the leader of SkillsUSA for Timberline.
“Skills is a national organization, not just a club at Timberline. Their main focus is on leadership, community service, fundraising and competition,” said Thorpe, who has been the adviser at Timberline since 2010.
SkillsUSA is on a national level, where hundreds of people from all different trades, leadership roles and states come together to compete. Skills is slowly becoming more recognized by organizations such as workplaces and universities, which makes it look great on a resume, and easier to make connections with others. Skills is its own community, an opportunity to become friends with people of the same interest and the ability to compete to show off your skills.
Why should you be thinking about Skills? “It can give you leadership opportunities, community service to help our community and build those hours for resumes and college applications, a team feeling where you belong to a team and work on common goals, work together,” said Thorpe. It is an amazing opportunity to work in skills, you want those opportunities for your future. “Skills is getting more and more out there in our community, more people are getting involved in skills from DTEC to Timberline and any other schools that offer a CTE (Career Technical Education) course (they have to have a club tied to their CTE course, ours is SkillsUSA), the word is getting out, it’s fun conversations for students to have where they can find commonalities,” said Thorpe.
Skills is a really big opportunity, and while going to state and nationals and meeting new people can be a challenge, it is very rewarding. Although, what is Skills state and nationals? “Skills, trade and leadership,” said Thorpe, are at nationals and you get a chance to compete in any of those fields. At state you’ll compete with the other school in your state to see which will end up at nationals. Skills usually doesn’t have requirements, it’s more so if you’re in a class that talks about skills, then you can participate. There is a fee to pay to go to nationals, but it is all the while worth it.
If they want to get involved, we welcome anyone that wants to get involved.
— Thorpe
There you have it, just a small overview of the experience you can get from SkillsUSA. An upcoming community that focuses on the people in it with opportunities galore.
