SkillsUSA Students Excel at 2023 National Workforce Development Event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Kent Storm

State Executive Director

515-344-3888

kent@skillsusaiowa.org

SkillsUSA Students Excel at

2023 National Workforce Development Event

Ankeny, Iowa — Career and technical education students from Iowa demonstrated excellence and brought home medals and honors at the 2023 SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference.

The annual SkillsUSA conference was a showcase of the best career and technical education (CTE) students in the nation where outstanding students competed in more than 100 different trade, technical and leadership events. The 2023 SkillsUSA Championships was held in Atlanta in June, with attendance of over 16,100.

During the national event, SkillsUSA CTE students from Iowa worked against the clock, 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. The annual championships event is for middle school, high school and college-level students who are members of SkillsUSA.

SkillsUSA Iowa sent 105 attendees to participate at the national workforce event, representing 18 schools. Students consistently demonstrated expertise and professionalism while participating in a variety of leadership and competitive experiences. 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. The organization’s vision is to produce the most highly skilled workforce in the world, providing every member the opportunity for career success.

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 following students finished the 2023 national conference with outstanding accomplishments:

Gold Medals

Electrical Construction Wiring, Brady Pearson, Southwestern Community College

Electronics Technology, Dan Gustafson, Kirkwood Community College

Silver Medals

Automative Service Technology, Spencer Speral, Kirkwood Community College

Carpentry, Anselm Friestch, Des Moines Area Community College - Newton

Colleision Repair Technology, Lucas Lynch, Southwestern Community College

Bronze Medals

Motorcycle Service Technology, Wayde Coffey, Iowa Lakes Community College

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

Kent Storm, 515-344-3888, kent@skillsusaiowa.org

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. 

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