PNC is proud to support Business Forward, where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George, joining me tonight, Eric Hill.

Eric is the Executive Director for SkillsUSA for the State of Illinois, welcome Eric.

- Thank you very much for having me on.

- Yeah, well, I'm glad you came in, lot of stuff to talk about.

Let's start off with you, are you from around here?

- I am born and raised in Pekin, Illinois, have a family here in town.

And probably will be here my whole life.

- Okay, so SkillsUSA, what is that.

- SkillsUSA, we're a nationwide student organization.

We've been around for just over 50 years and our focus is preparing the next generation of skilled workers.

- Okay, so I put down your positioning people to have a productive career path, is that the same thing?

- [Erick] Absolutely.

- All right.

So we've talked about with all of the business right now, I don't care whether it's big business, small business, everybody's talking about shortages in the workforce.

So is this in a sense prepping people to get into the workforce, like workforce readiness?

Is this what this is?

- Yeah, absolutely.

And really, so SkillsUSA is really founded on what we call our framework.

So that's developing personal skills, workplace skills and technical skills.

So we partner with high schools, colleges, and even middle schools all across the country.

And we help students see not only the value of technical skills, so maybe that's construction management, maybe it's public safety, healthcare, just about any career field you could imagine.

We're exposing those students to the opportunities within the technical skills, but then also helping develop those soft skills and leadership skills.

A lot of students nowadays don't have the core foundation that maybe some generations before them were raised on, teamwork, time management, collaboration, things that outside clubs and organizations used to be very involved with students, they're not having that as much anymore.

So SkillsUSA is really focused on both those areas.

- Well, that's actually a good point because when I was younger and I'm a lot older than you, you'd sit there and you'd have different clubs, you'd have different, and right now it just seems sports focused, but there's not different clubs, even student council.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

Probably some of it is apathy, but I think the other, the other part is opportunity.

So, students that are in sports are getting that well-rounded education, but not every student is destined for sports, not every student is destined for college.

So SkillsUSA is really trying to partner with all of our school systems to give students a chance to have outside the classroom experiences and even better yet bringing industry partners in with that and having them see what a career field could look like, maybe in carpentry or welding or manufacturing.

- Anything with the trades, really, because there's so many openings we've had so people in the trades on the show and talking about, I mean, we just want good people.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

And they don't need to be the most skilled, they just need to show up on time, they need to be able to think critically.

I think that's the- - [Matt] Oh, I like that.

- number one skillset that I hear from employers.

Yesterday I was talking to someone about cosmetology in the morning.

We had a manufacturing call in the afternoon and public safety call in the evening.

And all three of them are all saying basically the same thing.

Give me somebody that shows up, that wants to learn and can think on their feet, that's the employee for me.

And so all of our skills development and focus is all around, not just technical skills, but again, those leadership skills.

- I like hearing that.

And I like hearing that you are going even a step earlier to the middle school, because if you think about this, even kids in fourth and fifth, sixth grade, nobody's dreaming anymore to be a nurse or to do whatever.

And I remember my mom was a nurse her whole career, and she always wanted to be a nurse.

And I have four daughters and I sit there and as they have grown up, they never had those dreams.

I wanna be a doctor, I want to be whatever it may be.

And it's just, I think if you put more things in front of people and maybe that's good or bad because technology's involved, but if you put more things in front of people at a young age, it's really going to help.

I think that's what SkillsUSA is doing.

Is that correct?

- Absolutely.

And I think a lot of the career fields that a middle school student now will end up having as their career path doesn't even exist today.

So it's how can we expose them to technology and the changes of technology, so as they're growing, they have a thirst in a one to learn a skillset that we can't even teach them for yet.

A few years ago, the thought of drone delivering a package to your doorstep was unrealistic.

But now we have drone operator classes and we see drones being used in the construction trades field.

And that's a field that construction management, you're gonna think of hammers and nails.

Well, now we're talking about drone technology doing site surveying and the technology that goes behind that.

So a lot of it is just giving students the opportunity to see that there's more to a career than just what meets the eye.

- Well, I think that's another great point is, we had somebody from Bradley University from the entrepreneur school and they were talking about everything is going to change here in the next 10 years.

And so one example when we had another guest on talking about farming is, there's a farmer in Illinois that has crops four states over, and they're sitting here with their drones and they're actually watching there are crops from Illinois from another, it's crazy.

- Absolutely.

- It's crazy.

So you're charged with the whole state of Illinois, what does that look like?

Does that look like every high school or is that your goal to get every high school or middle school?

- Great question.

So we are currently in 135 high schools, middle schools and colleges across the state.

That's not every school, obviously our hope is that every student can get exposure to SkillsUSA, but we really focus on trade schools or schools that offer the skilled trades, 'cause not all of the high schools in the State of Illinois have the ability to offer those to students, unfortunately.

- Is that like, I don't mean to interrupt, industrial arts, CTE?

- Industrial arts, CTE, there's lots of names for it, but basically any of the skilled trade classes stepping outside of the traditional math, science, social studies, that's really where SkillsUSA lives.

And so we work with teachers that are hands on in the classroom with those students.

- That's awesome.

And in talking back to the another point you made in talking to one of these business owners, they said, "Listen, if we can just get somebody that cares, we will train, we're good at training, but we just need people that care.

And not that call off on Monday morning at 8:15 when they have to be in there at 8:30."

- Absolutely, and I think that's one of the new initiatives that we're really excited about.

During the COVID pandemic we've had to pivot as an organization because we haven't been able to offer the same in person conferences that we have in the past.

So we really put our efforts into how we can develop that next step, because I think one of the things that miss, even from an employer recruiting standpoint, maybe going to career fair or a student knowing that jobs exist out there, there's still a gap between how do I, as a high school student or even as a college student graduating, how do I make that step into the workforce?

And I know that sounds crazy that that that gap would exist.

But there really is not a great path from high school to employment.

If you wanna go into college, your guidance counselor is gonna help walk you through that application process, they're gonna help follow up and then you're gonna have a college that's gonna reach back out to you to schedule maybe that onsite visit or that enrollment process.

But an employer it's not the same, there's no connection there.

So SkillsUSA is trying to give students through our registered apprenticeship program, a chance to get on the job the summer of their junior and senior year, on the job training in the career field that they're interested in.

So that when they graduate high school, there is no transition, they're already working for that employer.

And now they're working, they're making a good wage and they can make the decision if they want to continue on to college, or maybe they continue working just under that employer.

But that's the connection we're trying to make across the state of Illinois and really across the country at this point.

- And we're hearing more now than ever, college isn't for everybody.

And so I've even talked to college presidents and they agree.

So they've actually used your word, pivoted and they're sitting here with more certifications, more short term classes and IT and AI and truck driving, whatever it may be, to help fill those holes in those gaps in the workforce.

- Absolutely.

And I hope more colleges do pivot to that mindset, because it's such a great opportunity.

Again, I'll go back to this employment opportunity.

If a student gets hired right out of high school and is working for an employer that employer may end up paying for their education to continue, or the student can take advantage of opportunities to continue their career path or continue their education.

But it doesn't have to be one or the other, it can happen at the same time, and that makes so much more sense.

'Cause if you go through four years of college in a career field that you've never experienced, what happens if you don't like it?

- Well, that happened to my daughter.

- Oh really?

- And what happened is she thought out she was going this route and she ended up having to go to another year of college.

And it goes to what, you're not alluding to this, but it reminds me of her, this situation, and I'm sure thousands of kids have gone through this is, you really, as a college kid, don't really don't know what you're doing a lot of times, you really don't know where things are gonna end.

And so you said earlier there were counselors or whatever at a college and they'll sit there and help you, but there's no mentors, there's no job coaches.

There's no people holding your hand as you're going through this process.

Because if there were, my daughter who is getting straight A's, good student, would actually not have to take an extra year, which actually put that extra debt on our family and her.

- Absolutely, and I think that's the biggest opportunity we have with this registered apprenticeship piece.

These apprentice will last three to four years and SkillsUSA is tracking and working with the students.

So we're working with them when they're in high school, we're working with them when they're at the employer and even as they continue on to community college.

So I'm not saying we will always have the best answers, but we're another checkpoint for that student to hopefully make sure that they're on the right path, the path that they want to be on.

So we're really excited about those grants and the registered apprenticeship program.

- So let's talk process, all right.

So you are at, let's say Pekin High School as an example, and your team goes in there, like how does a student get involved?

- Yeah, great question.

So students will enroll in the career and technical class.

So we'll use welding for example.

So student has decided they want to be in welding.

One of the opportunities that they'll get an option to take advantage of would be participating in the SkillsUSA program at Pekin High School.

Once they enroll the SkillsUSA program, they can choose to go to our leadership events, which is really focusing on like resume writing, how to do in interviews, or they can enroll in our championship structure.

So that's where they can compete in welding or in a leadership event, maybe job interview.

And what they do is they'll go through a qualifying round and then if they pass the qualifying round, they'll get to come to our state conference, which we're really excited.

We are bringing the state conference to Peoria, Illinois this year.

So we're gonna have over 2000 students competing in 130 different career and technical areas.

We have about 400 industry partners from all across the country, bringing in, gosh, close to 20 million worth of equipment.

And these students are going to be competing hands on technical skills.

So if it's the diesel competition, they are gonna be working on a John Deere, they're gonna be working on a cat tractor, they're gonna be working on trucks.

So they are working in a simulated environment, which is two things.

One, lets them step outside the classroom and get hands on experience from an industry professional, someone working in the field, they wanna be in.

And two, it brings out a level of competition similar to that, we were talking about sports.

So it gives them an avenue to have that level of competition.

And so then those students, all of them, each winter in both the high school and college division will get to advance on our national conference, which will be in Atlanta, Georgia in June.

- That's pretty cool.

- Yeah, we're excited to be back in person and to be in Peoria for the first time and this will be our first time ever, we've been in Springfield for 50 years.

- Wow, what a boom for Middle Illinois, Central Illinois.

But also it reminds me of Caterpillars tied to the robotics competition because, I mean, it is competitive.

- [Erick] Absolutely.

- And so I love that piece of it.

So you also work with teachers and I think that's probably a very important piece.

Is it an education component or is it a process that they have to buy into to help this student because, isn't their job too to help lead them to the position you would think, is that a goal?

- I would think most of them have it as a personal goal, but it's definitely not an objective that they're measured by.

- Agreed, but you should as a teacher, my wife's a teacher, so I'm speaking for her, as a teacher you want each student to win, whatever that looks like.

- Absolutely.

And I think that's where SkillsUSA becomes a great outlet for an instructor in a CTE class where there's not, in math you have a standard that every student in the State of Illinois needs to learn to.

That's not necessarily the same with CTE.

So what avenue can we use to measure it?

Well, SkillsUSA is a great opportunity, 'cause they get to see how their student is doing measured up against the rest of the state of Illinois and even the country.

So it's a great opportunity for the instructor to see where they can grow and develop.

And it's an opportunity for the instructor to see, what does industry expect my student to know?

And that can change the course of instruction for the entire class, not just the student that made it to SkillsUSA.

- So you take it out of their hands, and then what I think is the biggest driver of our economy and the sector I love the most is small business.

So when you look at all business and you look at those gaps of people in the workforce right now, reliable people in the workforce, how do you now then communicate what you're doing from student to teacher to actual jobs?

- Absolutely.

So we start with our core group of those 400 industry partners that I talked about.

So we are really reaching out to all of those industry partners and letting them know, again about this apprenticeship program, I keep mentioning it, but it's a huge opportunity because one of the problems employers have about hiring youth is that there's a lot of restrictions with child labor laws around hiring someone under the age of 18.

If a student is in a registered apprenticeship program, like the one that SkillsUSA offers, they can actually be as young as 16- - [Matt] That's what I thought.

- and get into the workforce.

So it's a great opportunity that most employers don't know about.

But how do we get into the small business or so small businesses within a community is really stemming from, I'll give you a perfect example.

Caterpillar is looking to partner with us on this apprenticeship program.

So as we brought in local high schools in the area, Peoria, Pekin, Morton, Metamora, as we brought in these high schools, guidance counselors, department chairs, teachers at the school will say, "Well, we have another business in the area that might be interested."

And that's just expanded our reach completely, 'cause now they've never heard of SkillsUSA but they've known they needed a pipeline of students.

And now instead of them having to reach out to the school and make the right connection, SkillsUSA is able to funnel students right to them, so it's a great opportunity.

And we're seeing it work not only in Central Illinois, but all pockets all around the state of Illinois.

- That's cool, because word of mouth on this type of initiative has to happen.

- [Erick] Absolutely.

- So when you talk about, if I was a business owner, what is the value, and I've got two parts of this question, I'm trying to say it right.

How do you measure success or an indicator?

How do you say, we this quarter at SkillsUSA did the following?

What does your data look like?

- It's a great question.

So it used to be just membership driven, I'll be really honest.

So as we saw membership grow, we must have been doing something right.

What we did, we kind of fell into the same mold as our school systems.

We were taking students so close to being successful, but then never making that final step into employment.

Now our sole purpose, our sole focus is taking our students, preparing them as much as possible in the year or two years that we have them and then watching that transition piece take place into employment.

Our success has been measured, I used to tell, we have 10,000 members in the State of Illinois, this year I'm gonna tell that we have 200 apprentices enrolled in our program.

So SkillsUSA this year has put 200 of our students into the workforce and into opportunities that maybe they wouldn't have had if it wasn't for SkillsUSA.

So that's our new metric for measurement, is just how many of our members are prepared to work and how many of those students actually go into work.

- And I wonder if there's a number, there is, you can figure out the economic impact too of those jobs as they go from 200, if you looked at your own, whether it's SkillsUSA strategic initiatives, but if you looked at your own and said, I'm gonna go to two to five, what's that jump right there because that impact is what others could get on board with pretty easily, if you're a small business with gaps.

- Absolutely.

So SkillsUSA is not trying to be the only solution provider in this field, we need to partner with other organizations, whether it's Chamber of Commerce, whether it's maybe even organizations like the Collision Repair Education Foundation that focuses on the automotive collision industry.

We've gotta partner with these organizations that have ties into local communities, and expand and show the opportunities that are available.

We're happy to put our students to work, but we need to have places to put them to.

- Well there's brand loyalty with the SkillsUSA name, so if I was another group to sit there and show true collaboration to better the community, 'cause I was trying to figure out, all right, community impact, what is community impact mean when you go into every community in the, because you're covering the whole state.

- Yeah.

Absolutely.

- So why wouldn't all of these groups wanna write each other's coattails, ego?

- Yeah.

I don't know if it's ego.

I think it's more distrust.

- Okay.

I can buy that one.

- Like dis-alignment of vision.

So, I'm my organization, I have my mission and vision, it can't align with anyone else's without impacting mine.

So I think once you start, and I think SkillsUSA is an opportunity to build that bridge.

we have Lowe's and Home Depot working side by side on our competition floor.

I don't think you'll ever see those two companies working together in any other aspect- - That's a good point.

- of their existence, but they'll come together for SkillsUSA.

They'll both have their logo to apparel on, but they're working together for the same objective.

- And that's my point of writing each other's coattails.

- [Erick] Absolutely.

- They should, they have that corporate responsibility I feel to each community to do that, If that's what they're preaching in their own vision and mission statements.

- And I think we're starting to see that shift, but I do think it takes some trust and no one wants to be the first, no one wants to be the last.

So we're still kind of on that bleeding edge of youth into the workplace.

I think five years from now, what we're doing at SkillsUSA isn't going to be revolutionary, it's gonna be standard, or at least that's my hope.

- How do you make money?

Not you personally.

- So we're funded.

All of our members pay a membership due.

So that's either from the schools or students directly, we have conference registration, but the majority of our funds come from private public donations.

- [Matt] Is that grants or just donations?

- Business partners take up about 70% of that.

The other 30% of donations come in from grants.

- So in a sense you're a fundraiser.

- Absolutely.

We're a fundraiser and a connector, we raise money to connect our students to employment opportunities.

- Yeah, so I'm thinking, how do you, when you look at Illinois and if you're just looking right at the map and you take, all right, I got Chicago here, Middle Illinois here, Southern Illinois here.

Each region is very different.

How do you have the same model in each region or do you?

- We don't.

So we have the same general, I mentioned our SkillsUSA framework and our curriculum is offered, but the outreach that I have in central Illinois is very different than my outreach to Northern Illinois or Southern Illinois, just naturally is.

But at the end of the day, regardless of the industry sector that's needed in the area, it's still the same conversations taking place.

It's how do we get students into the career fields that are needed in our area?

And so the conversation is different, but it's also very, I mean, it's very similar, if that makes sense.

- Yeah.

I kind of go back.

I didn't know where this conversation was gonna go because there's so many different tentacles to what we can talk about, but I kind of wanna talk about just briefly about this career guidance, because I go back again to my kids, and I use my kids in a lot of different scenarios with shows that I do, at times they struggle to find their footing and that means all kids, right?

- [Erick] Absolutely.

- So what is the next three to five years look like and what the initiatives you have going with SkillsUSA to help these kids, kind of put your arm around them say, we've got you, here are the paths, like is this a branding campaign, a marketing campaign?

Is it a community campaign?

Is it all the above?

- Yeah.

So I think a student, you brought up guidance counselor.

a student in a household that is completely and totally supported, meaning they have full parental support, they have guidance from parentals, but they can still walk into a guidance counselor's office and not get direction.

Not because the guidance counselor's doing anything wrong, but there is, just in SkillsUSA alone, I could look at 130 paths a student could take.

That's a big decision to make as a 14 or 15 year old.

So what SkillsUSA is focused on, we do initiatives on recruiting students into the trades, but really what we're doing is once a student has engaged with us, once they've decided they wanna be in that carpentry class or that healthcare class, we wanna give them all the avenues we possibly can, to see if this is the career field they want.

So schools don't always have the ability to give them access to all of the career fields in that one space, because you might have a teacher teaching welding that has been a welding instructor they're, or a welder their whole life, they're not an educator.

So they don't think about every single path, they can only talk about the path that they've went on, just like a guidance counselor can only talk about the path that they've been on, which is education based.

So SkillsUSA is just trying to connect with those students that have made the first step and make sure that we're getting them to the second, third and fourth step, which ultimately gets them to employment.

- Well, I love this topic because I think it's relevant to every business out there.

So keep up the good work and SkillsUSA, if you have a child that is wondering what to do, just look you up and study.

And so we appreciate you coming on.

I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of Business Forward.

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