Since 1965, SkillsUSA has worked to fill the skills gap in the American economy — that widening divide between the jobs available and the skilled workers ready to fill them. We’re proud to bring our SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC) back to Atlanta this year, and we plan to be here until 2033.
This is our 60th annual conference and our third year in Atlanta, bringing an estimated economic impact of $28.5 million and 40,000 room nights in downtown hotels. More than 16,000 students, teachers, education leaders and industry partners are expected to attend the 2024 event, scheduled for June 24 to 28 in the Georgia World Congress Center. This will be SkillsUSA’s biggest NLSC ever. We’ve also hit the highest membership numbers in our history. We’re growing because the nation is beginning to understand: There has never been a better time to be skilled.
SkillsUSA is dedicated to improving the quality of our nation’s workforce by helping students to develop personal, workplace and technical skills grounded in academics that will help prepare them for careers in 130 trade, technical and skilled service occupations. With more than 400,000 members in over 4,700 schools in all 50 states, SkillsUSA graduates more than 100,000 students each year who are career-ready on day one, prepared for employment or further education.
More than 850 companies partner with SkillsUSA on the national level, and thousands more work at the state and local levels, many of those companies based in Georgia. The highlight of the conference is the SkillsUSA Championships, when more than 6,600 students will compete in 115 skill and leadership competitions, including additive manufacturing, CNC machining, robotics, engineering technology, auto service, smart home technology, construction, welding, graphic design, photography, cosmetology, aesthetics and the medical sciences. Each contestant is a first-place winner in his or her state’s competition held earlier this year. The Championships take place on Wednesday, June 26, and Thursday, June 27, at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC). More than $36 million in equipment and manpower will be donated by business and industry to make the event happen. Not only are the Championships one of the largest workforce development events in the world, but our conference is one of the largest single days of corporate volunteerism in America, with over 700 industry partners on the competition floor to plan and run the events.
Encompassing roughly 31 football fields or 41 acres, the 1.79 million-square-foot contest floor at the GWCC is a highly visual event and a great place to get excited about the future of our workforce. The SkillsUSA Championships require an immense amount of equipment and materials: 2,000 computers, 12,500 bricks and 1,500 blocks, more than 60 stoves and ovens, 25-plus refrigerators, 100-plus welders, 50-plus manufacturing machines and complete laboratories for machining, welding, auto repair and painting.
Other exciting features of the conference include two general sessions at State Farm Arena led by students and showcasing some local talent like poet Amena Brown and the Atlanta Drum Academy. The SkillsUSA TECHSPO trade show takes place concurrent to the competitions and is one of the largest technical trade shows in the U.S. with 200 exhibits. During a student-led community service project on Friday, June 28, an expected 500 SkillsUSA students from across the nation will assemble bicycles at GWCC and present them to Atlanta youth.
SkillsUSA is proud to be recognized by the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor as a verified talent pipeline and skills-gap solution provider as the #1 workforce development organization for students. We empower all career and technical students in our nation’s public schools to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members. We invite the Atlanta business community to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and to visit our website for daily conference highlights. Connect with our staff if you want to participate this year or in the future.
SkillsUSA is addressing the pressing issue of workforce development and actively seeking to help close the skills gap with a five-year strategy that will take us to a million students served per year as we strengthen partnerships between education and industry. Building a talent pipeline for America has never been more vital to our nation’s future. Join us in lifting up students in Atlanta and across the nation as we prepare students, fill jobs, change lives and build better communities.
So glad SKILLSUSA Conference is finally getting the attention it so richly deserves. The competitions not only prepare students for tremendous, well-paying careers but also provides great exposure to the critical shortage of talent needed in the skilled trades, particularly in the construction and manufacturing industries. Over 25% of skilled trades professionals will be retiring 2030, leaving over 300,000 vacancies per year that will need to be filled. SKILLSUSA is a vital pipeline to this looming dearth in the workforce!
So glad SKILLSUSA Conference is finally getting the attention it so richly deserves. The competitions not only prepare students for tremendous, well-paying careers but also provides great exposure to the critical shortage of talent needed in the skilled trades, particularly in the construction and manufacturing industries. Over 25% of skilled trades professionals will be retiring by 2030, leaving over 300,000 vacancies per year that will need to be filled. SKILLSUSA is a vital pipeline to this looming dearth in the workforce!