Showcasing skills: CMM Inspection

This month, a young American travels to France to display machining abilities he owes in part to an organization dedicated to closing the skills gap in the United States.

Kaden Stanczyk, 20, will make the trip from his home in Custer, Wisconsin, to the French city of Lyon to take part in the 47th WorldSkills competition. From Sept. 10 to 15, Eurexpo Lyon will welcome 1,500 contestants from more than 65 countries and regions to take part in 62 trade-skill competitions. Over 250,000 people from around the world are expected to attend the event.

The WorldSkills USA team will compete in several trade areas. American teams for WorldSkills events are assembled and managed by Leesburg, Virginia-based SkillsUSA. Billing itself as “America’s proud champion of the skilled trades,” SkillsUSA is a student-led partnership of educational institutions and industry that aims to assist in the development of graduates who are ready to take their place in the nation’s skilled workforce. Representing nearly 380,000 students and teachers, SkillsUSA chapters can be found in middle schools, high schools and postsecondary institutions across the country. Since 1965, the organization has served more than 14 million members

SkillsUSA member Kaden Stanczyk is representing the U.S. this month in the CNC milling competition at WorldSkills Lyon 2024. Image courtesy of SkillsUSA

According to SkillsUSA spokesperson Karen Kitzel, the organization is funded mainly by annual membership dues and donations from industry partners. Industry donations help support national activities such as the SkillsUSA Championships held each June. This year, Kitzel said, the event included 115 contests in different trade areas plus a large trade show and was attended by more than 17,000 people.

The organization’s efforts to produce career-ready graduates include more than just a focus on honing their technical abilities. Called the SkillsUSA Framework, the organization’s training approach covers personal, workplace and technical skills. Developing skills in all three areas is considered crucial for successful careers and lives. Therefore, SkillsUSA also offers instruction and experiences that help students learn and improve in areas such as teamwork, communication and professionalism.

Stanczyk is a member of the SkillsUSA chapter at his school, Mid-State Technical College in Rapids, Wisconsin. Selected by the organization as its WorldSkills competitor for CNC milling, he represented Wisconsin at the SkillsUSA Championships in 2022 and 2023, and also won a national silver medal in precision machining last year.

Stanczyk got an early start in milling, working with his father, Scott. “My dad runs a local machine shop,” he said, adding that he started running CNC equipment in his father’s shop when he was 12. “I got into (machining) there and really enjoyed it.”