Ethan Harrison Participates in SkillsUSA National Signing Day

Ethan Harrison Participates in SkillsUSA National Signing Day

SkillsUSA National Signing Day took place on Wednesday, May 8. Over 300 schools and an estimated 3,000 students participated across the country. The event saluted career and technical education students for pledging to continue in a skilled trades career after high school, in the same way as student athletes who sign for college sports programs or even the NFL.

Our partner Klein Tools took the lead, providing T-shirts, hats, backpacks and Klein pliers as gifts as well as pledge cards, signs, tablecloths and water bottles. Klein invited NFL quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to be the Signing Day spokesperson at Silicon Valley Career Technical Education Center in San Jose, Calif. He addressed the group alongside his father, Tony Garoppolo, a career electrician. Tim Lawrence spoke, as did the principal of Silicon Valley CTEC, Klein Tools president Mark Klein and vice president of marketing Greg Palese.

The first signer was WorldSkills USA cabinetmaking competitor, Ethan Harrison. At Silicon Valley CTE Center, ten students at a time sat at a table, signed pledge cards to a future skilled trades career, then stepped to the mic and stated their plans, posed for photos as a group, and received their hat and T-shirt, backpack and pliers. Don Black, of the Western Electrical Contractors Association and board chair of SkillsUSA California, also attended.