Greater Lowell Tech Celebrates SkillsUSA Week

TYNGSBOROUGH– Interim Superintendent Jill Davis is pleased to share that students and faculty recently celebrated SkillsUSA Week.

SkillsUSA Week began on Monday, Feb. 3, and ended on Friday, Feb. 7. Each February, SkillsUSA Week celebrates career and technical education (CTE) and the SkillsUSA program, which works to support CTE students as they develop their personal, workplace and technical skills. The week at Greater Lowell Tech included efforts to recognize various aspects of CTE education and the SkillsUSA program through an Appreciation Day on Monday, Feb. 3; Advocacy Day on Tuesday, Feb. 4; SkillsUSA Service Day on Wednesday. Feb. 5; Member Outreach Day on Thursday, Feb. 6; and SkillsUSA Day on Friday, Feb. 7. 

“SkillsUSA Week is a wonderful opportunity for our school community to come together, celebrate the value of CTE education and recognize what the SkillsUSA program offers our students as they prepare to enter the workforce,” Interim Superintendent Davis said. “SkillsUSA does a wonderful job supporting students as they prepare for their futures, which directly aligns with our school’s mission to ensure students’ readiness for career, college, and citizenship in the 21st century.”

Greater Lowell Tech’s SkillsUSA Executive Council honored advisers and teachers on Appreciation Day, Feb. 3, and delivered personalized gift packages. Additionally, on Advocacy Day, Feb. 4, student officers of the Greater Lowell Tech SkillsUSA chapter wrote a letter promoting SkillsUSA and CTE Programs to Congresswoman Lori Trahan. 

The school also organized a community service event on Wednesday, Feb. 5, and students in the Greater Lowell SkillsUSA chapter created Valentine’s Day cards to be delivered to residents of the D’Youville Manor Senior Living Center in Lowell. 

On Thursday, Feb. 6, Greater Lowell Tech’s SkillsUSA chapter held an in-house award ceremony. During the ceremony, 234 student members of the chapter were honored for their achievements at the in-house level of the competition. The ceremony included a presentation of certificates and awards, and featured Jillian Gentle, president of JM Career Services and a Greater Lowell SkillsUSA alumnus, as the event’s keynote speaker. 

Students recognized at the ceremony will move on to the next level of the SkillsUSA competition program, a SkillsUSA District 4 event on March 12. Five other area schools will compete in the competition at Greater Lowell Tech to advance to the state level, where more than $2 million in scholarships and tools will be awarded. 

SkillsUSA Week culminated at Greater Lowell Tech on Friday, Feb. 7, and faculty and staff sported their favorite SkillsUSA t-shirts and apparel.

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 more than 366,000 annual paid 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. With the addition of its alumni, membership last year was 427,432. The nonprofit has served nearly 14 million members since 1965. For more information: www.skillsusa.org.

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