Skilled Careers Coalition (SCC), the fast-growing, big-tent coalition bringing cross-sector stakeholders together, is making strides in addressing the skilled labor gap and rebuilding the great American workforce by addressing three critical areas:
Inspiration – to engage youth and career transitioners to pursue a career in the skilled trades
Mentoring – to teach, guide and ensure the intergenerational transfer of both skills and passion for the trades
Recruitment – to create streamlined hiring pathways for businesses to employ the best of the best skilled talent
“The time is now to move further faster in addressing the gap between supply and demand for skilled talent as the sector faces even greater pressures from housing shortages, reshoring of manufacturing and booming industries like robotics and mechatronics which are putting added stress on an already tight labor market,” said Mark Hedstrom, Executive Director, Skilled Careers Coalition. “Thanks to our growing alliance of committed, like-minded partners, we are reaching young people where they are to influence career decisions while creating a robust pipeline for recruitment.”
To address the priority areas SCC has identified, it has spent the last three years collectively bringing cross-sector stakeholders together as part of a growing coalition that includes industry, educators, youth, parents, skilled pros, and policymakers.
SCC and its coalition partners will be participating in the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference in Atlanta June 24-26 with a variety of initiatives planned to launch a much-needed, unified approach to address the most pressing challenges between the skilled trades sector and the shrinking labor pool.
SKILLS JAM Champions Journey – Ty Pennington returns as both host and mentor of this for-youth, by-youth content series presented by Skilled Careers Coalition. Press are invited to go behind the scenes as Pennington follows two teams on their journey to the finals of the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference. Tuesday-Thursday, June 24-26. Georgia World Congress Center.
SKILLS JAM Hosts Tik Talks and Fireside Chats – Skilled trade students join TikTok skilled pro content creators, small business owner, Atlanta-based Desiree Hill (@shemechanic) and Destiny Simone Adams, robotics expert and content creator (@iotlab616), to discuss such topics as Female Fixers and The Toolbelt Generation. Tuesday and Wednesday, June 24-25. Georgia World Congress Center.
An Evening with Skilled Careers Coalition – Leadership from across the skilled trades gather to discuss the state and future of the sector and how to inspire, engage and recruit the next generation of pros. Co-hosted by Ty Pennington and Mark Hedstrom, Executive Director, SCC. Participating coalition partners include: TikTok, John Deere, SkillsUSA, Blue Recruit, 84 Lumber, Harbor Freight, Lowe’s Foundation, Warner Bros. Discovery, Locus Robotics, National Association of Home Builders, MHI and others. Thursday, June 26, 4-6pm, The Otis, 154 Walker Street, Atlanta GA.