(ATLANTA, Georgia) – Industry is huge – spreading a total footprint of roughly 70 football fields, in fact.
Representatives of more than 200 companies converged at the 2026 SkillsUSA TECHSPO held June 2-4 during the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference at the sprawling Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The full conference ran June 1-5.
SkillsUSA is a professional organization focused on employability, leadership and technical skills that help college students pursue successful careers and be part of a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA offers more than 100 contests at the state and national levels in which students can compete.
Students and faculty advisors, along with program team leads and administrators from Texas State Technical College, attended the conference held in one of the largest convention centers in the country. It was there that TSTC students and staff members got face time with industry representatives to learn how their work parallels what the college does to train people of all ages to confidently enter the Texas workforce.
“Industry support is instrumental in motivating youth to attend TSTC for career training and in showing them the possibilities in their specific industries,” said Rey Tejada III, an industry relations specialist at TSTC’s Harlingen campus who attended the conference. “When students are made aware of the relationships that we have with reputable employers, they can rest assured knowing they will have great opportunities once they exit our training.”
Komatsu Mining Corp. – Longview Operations has been a longtime supporter of TSTC in Marshall, working with The TSTC Foundation to establish a scholarship for students and making in-kind equipment donations.
Grif Reome, director for technical workforce development at Komatsu American Corp. in Illinois, said attending the SkillsUSA conference helps bridge the gaps between industry and education.
Reome said one of the common questions he heard from visitors at the company’s booth was how to pursue careers in equipment and technology for construction, forklifts, mining, along with the industrial and forestry markets. Reome said students also wanted to know how to join the company.
“Students need to see a pragmatic pathway in the way technology is going in the future with skilled trades and SkillsUSA,” he said.
Reome said at the conference, students can learn from industry leaders how dedication and determination can build the country’s future.
“Success is on the individual, not on a piece of paper,” he said.
Shawnta’l McKinney, a training specialist at The Charles Machine Works Inc., a subsidiary of The Toro Company, works in Oklahoma. She said having women working in the company’s booth shows female competitors they belong in industrial fields. McKinney said the company employs several female welders, underscoring the industry’s evolving workforce.
Snap-On Inc., which had a large booth complete with IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet he will drive at the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 in August, had several staff members talking to attendees.
Jada Peters, a company booth representative, said the conference opens up the possibilities of two-year technical programs for attendees.
“We support the dignity of work,” Peters said. “It’s cool to see the students so motivated and ready to go.”
Gabe Krebs, a field service manager at Interstate Power Systems in Minnesota, is personally familiar with SkillsUSA. He competed in 2018 and 2019 in the Diesel Equipment Technology contests at the SkillsUSA national conference held in Louisville, Kentucky, when he was a student at a technical college in Minnesota.
“The industry support is life-changing with the connections I have made and the people I have met,” he said. “Networking transfers into the real-world.”
Krebs, along with representatives of other Rolls-Royce distributors, talked to visitors at their visual blue and white booth. He explained what Rolls-Royce does and how important power generation is. He said technicians are hard to find, but one can be successful if there is the ambition to grow and learn.
“The trades should not be looked down upon,” Krebs said. “The trades keep the world going.”
John Pardue, a technical excellence manager at Ohio-based W.W. Williams, a Rolls-Royce distributor, said students participating in the conference earned their opportunity to compete. This was the second time he attended the conference.
Pardue, who works at the company’s South Carolina location, said the question needs to be asked of what motivates the current generation of students. He said it is important for industry personnel to talk to them about the long-term quality of life in the technical careers they choose to pursue.
Pardue said skills learned in the automotive and marine fields can be used, with additional training, in the diesel equipment field.
“With the world of artificial intelligence, it can help technicians, but it is not going to go out and replace a cylinder head.”
Tejada said he looks forward to taking what he learned at the conference and applying it to the business climate in the Rio Grande Valley.
“I will discuss how well our students perform on the national level,” he said. “I will use that leverage to ensure they’re getting the jobs and wages they deserve.”
For more information about SkillsUSA, go to skillsusa.org.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.