Schools

SkillsUSA Europe soaring to new heights (literally)

by Ken Robinson
SkillsUSA Europe Lead
January 20, 2023

The 2023 Skills European Regional Championships is about to kick off its sixth season of exciting CTE-STEM challenges for DODEA Europe East high schools. On Feb. 1, AFCEA Chapter 158 will once again host their SkillsUSA contests with opportunities to win $16,000 in scholarships and prizes. Finalists of the ten industry-developed contests will receive $1,000, $500 and $100 in award money (per contest, not contestant). 

This is the most lucrative SkillsUSA event to date. For the organizers of the event however, it’s about the challenge, not the awards that is so very special. This year’s event will include two brand new contests which will take STEM to a whole new level. The 2023 SkillsUSA event will host for the first time, a new DOD STEM Challenge requiring students to design atmospheric experiments to be engineered and integrated into a High-Altitude Balloon (HAB). The top three finalists will have their experiments flown into near space where they will capture necessary data required to complete the experiment and submit their analysis for final review and contest placement.

Taking STEM one step further, SkillsUSA Europe has partnered with Deutsche Telekom who will host both the new STEM Debate and Marketing contest. The STEM Debate will offer students an opportunity to go head-to-head against other student teams where an in-depth knowledge of a particular STEM theme will be necessary to move forward in a tournament style competition. 

In addition to the new STEM contests, AFCEA Chapter 158 will continue to sponsor eight critical industry relevant CTE contests. Students can compete in more than one contest, and can compete both individually or as a team-of-two (contest specific). AFCEA is proud to announce the following 2023 SkillsUSA challenges:

  • STEM Challenge 
  • STEM Debate 
  • Cybersecurity 
  • Computer Programming
  • Engineering
  • Advertising Design
  • Nursing Assistant (Ramstein only)
  • Photojournalism
  • Marketing
  • Video Production

Registration deadline for the DOD STEM Challenge and Engineering contest is Jan. 31. Registration for all remaining contests is Feb. 8. Contest details and previous student submissions can be accessed via the AFCEA SkillsUSA registration website: https://kaiserslautern.afceachapters.org/SkillsUSA
For more information about the event, please direct all questions to skillsusaeurope@gmail.com.

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