Working together in teams, understanding leadership, communicating clearly and demonstrating integrity are required in any career. However, these skills aren’t easy to teach — until now. SkillsUSA Career Essentials: Experiences is the next generation of employability skill-building curricula developed for today’s students. SkillsUSA Career Essentials: Experiences is everything you need to give your students what they need to be career-ready. SkillsUSA Career Essentials: Experiences takes your students to the next level of demonstration within the SkillsUSA learning continuum. It prepares students for the transition to the workforce or higher education through authentic project-based experiences. The online curricula empower teachers with high-quality skill development resources and advances the impact of the SkillsUSA Framework. Each Experience is designed with the best practices of project-based learning. They include on-line and off-line learning events including pre- and post-test, an instructor-led kickoff, and content that contributes to project completion. Each Experience engages students in implementing the Essential Elements through contextualized learning applied to real-work situations. There are nine fundamental Experiences that can be completed within one academic year but can be expanded or completed more quickly to meet local needs. In addition, the advanced Experiences curriculum has six Experiences and a capstone authentic assessment Experience in which students develop a career-ready portfolio. The advanced Experiences may also be completed within an academic year or expanded. Each fundamental Experience may be completed in two weeks if approximately 30 minutes are invested each day. Each advanced Experience may be completed within three weeks if approximately 30 minutes are invested each day. All Experiences begin with a pre-test, and it is followed by a 30-minute instructor-led kick-off, and then on-line and off-line individual or group tasks that contribute to the project completion. Instructors have the flexibility to adapt each experience to the local context. Students may earn an electronic badge for successfully passing each Experience with a score of at least 80%. Students may also earn a cumulative badge for successfully passing all Experiences in a given set.

All of the resources are delivered digitally through an e-learning site that provides:

• 24/7 access to students and instructors on computers, tablets or smartphones
• Turnkey tools and resources for instructors
• A built-in grading and badging system

The most important skills were the hardest to teach – until now!