IGN Entertainment

As Skilled Trades Gap Tops 6.5 Million Over Next Decade, Initiative Seeks to Bring Stakeholders Together While Inspiring Young People to Forge an Alternate Path to Career Success

The Skilled Careers Coalition (SCC) is launching a long-term effort to build an education-recruitment machine as the ever-widening skilled labor gap threatens the socio-economic future of the next generation.

The SCC has joined forces with SkillsUSA and IGN Entertainment to create a dynamic ecosystem that cultivates the talent required to meet the growing demand for skilled makers, builders, fixers, and creators. This strategic alignment is a vital step in the organization’s coalition-building efforts, bringing together industry expertise, educational resources, and media influence to drive positive change in the skilled career landscape. Through this collaboration, Skilled Careers Coalition is committed to empowering individuals, fostering innovation, and building a robust pipeline of skilled professionals.

“With the help of strategic partners like SkillsUSA and IGN Entertainment, Skilled Careers Coalition is on a mission to bring the youth of today to the skilled careers of tomorrow,” said John Montgomery, Executive Director, Skilled Careers Coalition. “We have a long-game approach, but we cannot do it alone and are calling on parents, youth, educators, businesses, and brands to join us in helping kids turn their talents and passions into career opportunity and achievement.”

To activate their mission, SCC is tapping SkillsUSA’s vast network of students and educators; and the capabilities and channels of IGN Entertainment to create SKILLS JAM, a teen-based docuseries set to air later this year.

“SkillsUSA is America’s proud champion of the skilled trades,” said Chelle Travis, Executive Director, SkillsUSA. “Our vision is to produce the most highly skilled workforce in the world while providing every member the opportunity for career success. We sincerely thank the Skilled Careers Coalition for providing an opportunity to amplify our mission and our message. Their efforts will make a difference for the more than 380,000 students and educators that SkillsUSA serves annually in career and technical education classrooms across the country.”

“IGN Entertainment, one of the most trusted entertainment media brands in the world, is honored to be the production partner for SKILLS JAM,” said Karl Stewart, SVP, Strategic Partnerships and Innovation, IGN. “For over 26 years we’ve been creating content and stories across video, social, editorial and web, engaging with over 286M+ eyeballs a month across 35 platforms. Now, we have the opportunity to take the experience and trust we’ve built up in helping tell, what we equally believe, is one of the most important stories of a generation.”

Announced June 20, 2023 at the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference in Atlanta, the partnerships between Skilled Careers Coalition and these industry-leading organizations are part of a coordinated effort among like-minded stakeholders to change the trajectory of the skilled trades sector. SCC plans to announce more cross-industry collaborations later this summer.

From advancements in AI and the rising costs of a college education to the widening skills gap, the American workforce is changing dramatically as the next generation re-thinks the traditional four-year college-to-career path that has left many grads disillusioned and in debt. Meanwhile, America’s talent pool of highly trained professionals in skilled careers spanning construction, industrial, creative, and service, are more in-demand than ever before.

Skilled Careers Coalition is focused on reversing dated perceptions about skilled careers, with a mission to start a youth movement that drives engagement and enrollment. Together with SkillsUSA and IGN Entertainment, SCC is kicking off a powerful, content-driven awareness campaign centered around SKILLS JAM, a teen-based docuseries that inspires young adults to reimagine skilled trades as a meaningful career path that can lead to financial freedom, entrepreneurialism, and lifelong success. The show will premiere on YouTube this fall.

About SkillsUSA SkillsUSA is America’s proud champion of the skilled trades. It’s a student-led partnership of education and industry that’s building the skilled workforce our nation depends on with graduates who are career ready, day one. Representing nearly 380,000 career and technical education students and teachers, SkillsUSA chapters thrive in middle schools, high schools and college/postsecondary institutions nationwide. SkillsUSA’s mission empowers students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members. That mission is accomplished through the SkillsUSA Framework of Personal Skills, Workplace Skills and Technical Skills Grounded in Academics, which is integrated into the classroom curriculum. Through Framework instruction, students develop the character-shaping leadership skills — teamwork, communication, professionalism and more — that successful careers and lives demand. At the same time, students hone their high-level technical skills against current industry standards in more than 130 skilled trade areas, from 3-D Animation to Welding. The result? Focused, confident and highly skilled graduates who are ready to work, ready to lead and ready to make a difference in our schools, workplaces and communities. A vital solution to the skills gap, where more in-demand skilled trades positions are available than qualified professionals to fill them, SkillsUSA has served more than 14 million difference-making members since 1965. For more, visit www.skillsusa.org.

About IGN Entertainment IGN Entertainment is one of the leading Internet media companies focused on video games and entertainment. Part of Ziff Davis, Inc., IGN reaches more than 286 million monthly users around the world and is followed by more than 55MM social and YouTube followers. With an extremely engaged audience, watching over 400MM minutes of content monthly, IGN also publishes daily content on 35 platforms including TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat Discover. Established in 1996, IGN is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Sydney and London. IGN content is localized in 25 languages and 112 countries and hosted on websites and native applications on mobile, connected TV, and Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

About Skilled Careers Coalition Skilled Careers Coalition (SCC) is on a mission to bring the youth of today to the skilled careers of tomorrow by revolutionizing this critical sector of the American workforce. With a dramatic paradigm shift taking place in both employment and education, and with industries and organizations operating in silos, SCC is driving the connectivity needed between parents, youth, educators, businesses, and brands to build a dynamic ecosystem that harnesses the talent needed to close the ever-widening skills gap. To empower students and educators to navigate the skilled trades landscape, Skilled Careers Coalition is producing engaging content and valuable resources. SCC is reshaping the future and fueling a youth movement that sparks excitement for skilled career opportunities while inspiring more young people to pursue a new alternate path to lifelong success. For more information or to get involved visit www.skilledcareers.org.