ROSWELL — Roswell High School students are heading into the real world after graduation, but twelve of them aren’t pursuing a traditional post secondary education. They put pen to paper for the National SkillsUSA Signing Day, and committed to trades.
SkillsUSA is a workforce development organization that partners with schools across the country to help grow students’ talents and give them hands-on instruction for career and technical education, or CTE.
“I’ve wanted to do electrical engineering because I’ve always liked the dynamic of electrical,” says senior Corbin Curless, who committed to Kennesaw State University. “You kind of work around new problems, create new things, and with where the future’s headed, I want to be a part of that.”
While some of these kids are still pursuing a post-secondary education, like Corbin, others will go straight into the workforce to be plumbers, electricians, and construction workers. Many, getting their experience in class.
Kevin Squiers, Roswell High School’s construction teacher and SkillsUSA advisor, weighed in on the growing interest.
“They’re seeing the trades, and I don’t think in the past it was such a great opportunity. And now they’re seeing the trades people make well into six figures. They see their friends come back with a nice new truck and they’re able to buy a house in their early 20’s. They want to hop on.”
Nicole Prosser, SkillsUSA’s national student treasurer, explained to WSB-TV that many students don’t realize the CTE pathway is an option while deciding what to do in the future, and trades jobs are absolutely vital to the economy.
“It’s a great alternative to what we kind of grew up thinking should be a base career field, to kind of all these other career fields that are just as important.”
Nicole stressed SkillsUSA’s mission, to prepare students for their future careers. “There’s actually a really large gap between the jobs that need to be filled in these types of fields and the people that are prepped to fill them, and we help address that.”
SkillsUSA not only partners with schools, but also with local organizations. Atlanta’s Construction Ready helps SkillsUSA and local teachers with events, competitions, funding, resources, and industry connections for students.
Back in February, a SkillsUSA and Cobb Innovation and Technology Academy student became the first female student to win the Georgia state HVAC competition, showcasing the value of their in-class training.
One student we spoke with brought up a change in the workforce, an uncertainty that comes with the growth of artificial intelligence.
“There’s an unlimited amount of jobs in the workforce [trades] and it’s one of the only jobs AI can’t take over,” explained sophomore Preston Warren. He’s pursuing the dual-enrollment program to get a head start on post secondary education at Chattahoochee Technical College, hoping to one day be an industrial electrician.
In all, 5,700 students signed with SkillsUSA across the country.