Terms of Service

SkillsUSA Career Essentials suite resources engage students in defining, implementing and measuring their career-readiness skills along every point in their educational journey whether it be middle-school, high-school or college/postsecondary.

• Foundations — The Career Essentials: Foundations curriculum is sourced in the SkillsUSA Framework and contributes, along with a multitude of other resources, to defining career readiness.
• Assessments — The SkillsUSA Career Essentials suite provides assessments for career and technical education that are supported and developed by industry, education and policy leaders.
• Experiences — SkillsUSA Career Essentials: Experiences is the next generation of employability skill-building curricula developed for today’s students.

You may not use your registered account (or allow anyone else to use your registered account) to post or transmit:

• Content that is threatening, defamatory, abusive, hateful, offensive, fraudulent, discloses private matters of another person
• Political or religious statements or commentary.
• Anything that intentionally violates any applicable law or regulation
• Any material that you don’t have the right to transmit under law, such as copyright, trade secret, or securities, or under contractual or fiduciary relationships, such as nondisclosure agreements.
• Language that promotes illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them. This includes any message that solicits or promotes the use of an illegal substance.
• An attempt to impersonate another person
• Private information, such as social security numbers.
• Advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation.
• Any file or link to a file that contains viruses, “Trojan Horses,” corrupted files, or any other contaminating or destructive features that may damage someone else’s computer.
• Messages designed to evade profanity or other filters.
• Hyperlinks that lead to sites that violate any of our guidelines.

If you find a violation of these Terms of Service, please notify us by using one of the “Objectionable” links or contact us directly at info@skillsusa.org or using other method listed in contact information below.

If you believe that work belonging to you is displayed on or has been copied onto the SkillsUSA CONNECT Site without your permission, please notify by sending a written notification of claimed infringement:

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material.
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
• A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Overview

This website is owned and operated by SkillsUSA. We recognize that visitors to our site may be concerned about the information they provide to us and how we treat that information. SkillsUSA is committed to honoring our members’ privacy preferences.

This policy covers www.skillsusa.org, www.skillsusa-register.org, www.CareerEssentials.org, WorldSkillsUSA.org, SkillsUSAConnect.org and SkillsUSAChampions.org which are owned and operated by SkillsUSA Inc. We encourage you to take the time to read this privacy policy and those of any website you visit.

Information Collected

Purchases and Registration

To purchase items and register for events on this website you must create an account and provide at minimum your name, address, phone number and email address. For information about the handling of your credit card information, please see the section below titled “Security of Your Information.”

Subscribing to e-News Alerts and Active Advisor News

To sign up for alerts and e-newsletters, you are in most cases only required to provide us with your full name and email address.

We’ve enabled some Google Analytics features based on Display Advertising (e.g., Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, the DoubleClick Campaign Manager integration, or Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting).

Visitors can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads using the Ads Settings at Google.

Use of Information

Your information will be used to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, and to send information to you about SkillsUSA and our services. You may opt-out of mailings at any time if you do not wish to receive non-business critical information from us. SkillsUSA will not sell your email address for commercial purposes.

Photography

By providing an image to SkillsUSA Inc., Leesburg, Va., you are granting SkillsUSA the rights to using this image in print, electronic, video and social media. This also includes tagging SkillsUSA in images shared on social media sites. Reproduction beyond usage by SkillsUSA Inc. is prohibited. Under no circumstances will any images of any children under 13 be published or used by SkillsUSA without verified parental consent.

How to Opt-Out

E-Newsletters

If at any time you wish to stop receiving an electronic newsletter from SkillsUSA, you may opt-out by selecting the unsubscribe link located at the bottom of every message, or by contacting us at info@skillsusa.org. Please provide enough information for us to be able to identify you and comply with your request.

Security of Your Information

We will take appropriate steps to protect the security of your personal information. We will also protect your personal information in storage. We have implemented security policies, rules, and technical measures to protect the personal data that we have under our control from: unauthorized access; improper use or disclosure; unauthorized modification; and unlawful destruction or accidental loss. All our employees who have access to, and are associated with processing of personal data, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of our visitors’ personal data.

All sensitive information (such as your credit card information) provided to SkillsUSA through our website is transmitted to our credit card processor using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. SSL is a proven coding system that lets your browser automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before you send it to us. No credit card information is stored on our site. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can ever be 100 percent secure. While we strive to protect your information to the fullest extent, we cannot ensure or completely guarantee the security of such information.

You can also use this handy browser add-on to opt-out of Google Analytics.

Third Party Access to Information

Third party vendors listed below may have access to personally identifying information shared with us via this site. Data shared with vendors is only for the purpose of fulfilling its duties and providing services or for improving services and will not be for commercial use. Data will not be shared with any additional parties other than those listed here without written consent except as required by law. Site and tools are not intended for children under the age of 13.

Links to Third Party Sites

We provide links to third-party sites. Since we do not control those websites, we encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these third party sites.

Questions and Contact Information

SkillsUSA welcomes comments and questions on this policy. We are dedicated to protecting your personal information and will make every reasonable effort to keep that information secure.

If you have any questions, please contact us:

Changes to the Privacy Policy

We may change or supplement this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post an appropriate notice of changes to the Privacy Policy on our site. Privacy Policy changes will apply to the information collected from the date we post the revised Privacy Policy to the Site, as well as to existing information held by us.

Last Revised: February 21, 2024

I. Purpose

SkillsUSA Student Data Privacy Policy

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that SkillsUSA and its member organizations take appropriate steps to protect any personally identifiable information (PII) of students and related data. Although SkillsUSA is not an educational institution as defined in 34 CFR Part 99, SkillsUSA is committed to ensuring that all PII is protected and that SkillsUSA members are made aware of all rights and responsibilities regarding protecting PII.

II. Information Collected

Throughout the various platforms and databases that SkillsUSA uses to register, inform, and provide services to member organizations and individuals, the required data from participants often falls under the definition of “directory information” under 34 CFR § 99.3. This information can include, but is not limited to, a student’s name, address, telephone number, and email address. SkillsUSA does not request social security numbers. Schools and/or students have the option to enter school-provided student identification numbers. In many cases, under our agreements with member organizations, SkillsUSA is performing an institutional service or function that a member would otherwise assign to its own employees, under the direct control of the member organization and according to the criteria specified in the member’s annual FERPA notification. As such, SkillsUSA is acting as a school official and, therefore, is covered under the school official exemption under FERPA at 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1).

While SkillsUSA requests information related to ethnicity, socio-economic and other demographics, this information is optional for students to share, and in addition to the questions being optional, most questions contain a “prefer to not respond” answer option. This information is in an aggregated format and does not identify any specific student and is used for analytical purposes only. This allows SkillsUSA to report on how students at a national or state level responded to the demographic and socio-economic questions. If, at a future point in time, SkillsUSA collects data containing PII other than directory information, we will follow all applicable regulations regarding the protection and disclosure of that data if the need arises.

If you wish to access, modify, or delete other personal information that you have provided to SkillsUSA, such as your address, please contact us at info@skillsusa.org for assistance.

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. Please contact us if you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. Otherwise, SkillsUSA will download user data on a quarterly basis, retain that data for one year, and then dispose of the previous year’s data.

III. Use of Information

Generic information like names and email addresses are used for members’ personal accounts and to provide specific services. Such information will be used to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments and send information about SkillsUSA and our services. Individuals may opt-out of mailings at any time if they do not wish to receive non-business critical information from us.

Demographic information is combined with monitoring trends in individuals registering and participating in SkillsUSA programs and is not tied to individual accounts. Data is shared only with operation-critical third-party vendors connected directly to the functionality of the online curricular resources and reporting. Data is not shared with other third-party vendors, and contact information is not provided to any commercial or non-commercial entities.

SkillsUSA takes appropriate steps to protect the security of all personal information that is collected and stored. Security policies, rules, and technical measures are implemented to protect the personal data from unauthorized access, improper use or disclosure; unauthorized modification; and unlawful destruction or accidental loss.

If SkillsUSA becomes aware of a systems security breach by an unauthorized party or that any user data was used for an unauthorized purpose, we will comply with relevant state and other data breach laws. We will notify users of any breach resulting in an unauthorized release of data electronically, at minimum, and without unreasonable delay so that you can take appropriate steps. The notification will include the date of the breach, the types of information that were subject to the breach, general description of what occurred and steps SkillsUSA is taking to address the breach.

All employees who have access to, and are associated with the processing of personal data, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of all PII, have undergone background checks, and have received COPPA and FERPA training.

SkillsUSA does not share PII with any third-party organizations without prior written consent from its members. Even in cases where SkillsUSA is performing an institutional service or function that a member would otherwise assign to its own employees, under the direct control of the member organization and according to the criteria specified in the member’s annual FERPA notification, SkillsUSA will still follow all applicable FERPA rules regarding the use and protection against unauthorized disclosure of all PII involved.

Portions of the SkillsUSA LMS and the Website contain functions for collecting personal information, including names and email addresses, as well as an individual’s or account’s access history. SkillsUSA may also collect and track other personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information about you, such as your I.P. address, the type of browser you use, and the website you visited before visiting our website or SkillsUSA services.

If you are using the SkillsUSA LMS as an educational institution, student information may be visible during customer support and/or troubleshooting. Personally identifiable information such as Student Name; Student Email Address; file names; creation dates of files; login dates and times; and third-party applications that students use could be viewed on our service by product support staff.

If you register to use the SkillsUSA Service or express interest in obtaining additional information, SkillsUSA requires you to provide your contact information, such as your name, school name, address, and email address. SkillsUSA may also ask for additional personal information, such as title, phone number, or other demographic or socio-economic information. You can opt-out of providing this additional information by not entering it when asked.

IV. Rights and Responsibilities

While SkillsUSA is not an educational institution subject to the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), except in cases where members outsource institutional services or functions to SkillsUSA, we are a national membership organization, with state and local chapters, that serves students attending institutions that are subject to FERPA, including high schools, colleges, middle schools, and other non-federal entities. All member organizations have the right to review student information provided to SkillsUSA and can request information be deleted or refuse to permit further collection or use of student data that has been provided. Members may make use of this right by contacting info@skillsusa.org and making such requests.

In light of this expansive membership, SkillsUSA is committed to helping member educational institutions stay in compliance with FERPA and its implementing regulations at 34 CFR Part 99. As noted above, the data that SkillsUSA collects is primarily directory information. Educational institutions that disclose directory information do not have to seek prior written consent from students or parents, as noted in 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(11). However, all educational institutions that might share this information with SkillsUSA must provide annual notification regarding this disclosure to parents and eligible students, including the right to opt-out of such disclosures. See 34 CFR § 99.37(a). Examples of such notifications can be found on the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office’s Website at: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/index.html.

Although SkillsUSA often qualifies for the school official exception under 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1), it will still notify registering individuals when any non-directory information is required, and students or program directors may choose not to provide certain demographic information. Any non-directory information that is collected is used solely for tracking registration and performance trends and is not tied directly to individuals. Any non-directory information submitted by an individual is destroyed once annually or upon school administrator request.

Information provided to SkillsUSA may be used to transmit, distribute, modify, reproduce, display, and store the student data solely for the purposes of providing the services as contemplated by the user’s agreement with SkillsUSA. Any internal use of information for maintaining, supporting, evaluating, improving, and developing our products, applications, and service, and for enforcing our rights under various agreements, will include all appropriate steps to protect all personally-identifiable information from unauthorized disclosure.

In the event that SkillsUSA is involved in a merger, reorganization, dissolution, sale of business or assets or similar event, information disclosed to or collected by SkillsUSA may be transferred to SkillsUSA’s’ successor, or to the purchaser of such assets, as applicable. You will be notified via email and a prominent notice on our website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information. This policy may change from time to time, so please review it frequently for any updates or changes. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you via email (sent to the email address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on our website at least 30 days prior to the change becoming effective.

SkillsUSA conducts regular security reviews of all systems through which student data is collected, maintained, and transmitted. Members may request the results of such audits by contacting info@skillsusa.org. Additionally, SkillsUSA ensures that all employees and staff that collect, handle, or transmit student data are trained on all FERPA-related requirements to ensure student data is protected.

V. General Statement on Children and COPPA

You must be 13 years of age or older to register an account on the SkillsUSA Sites. To the extent that SkillsUSA is able to determine the age of users by their submissions to, or communications with, this web site, SkillsUSA will not knowingly collect or post information from individuals under thirteen years of age (“Children” or “Child”) without their parent, guardian, or school’s verifiable consent. In any case SkillsUSA will not make public any personally identifying information collected from Children, regardless of its source, to any third party for any purpose whatsoever.

VI. Questions and Contact Information

SkillsUSA welcomes comments and questions on this policy. We are dedicated to protecting your personal information and will make every reasonable effort to keep that information secure. If you believe that SkillsUSA has not adhered to this Privacy Policy, please contact us electronically or via postal mail at the address provided below, and we will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.

If you have any questions, please contact us:

The information you provide to us will also be covered by this policy, and SkillsUSA will work to reply to your questions or comments within 30 days.

Protecting Children’s and student’s privacy is especially important to Us. We participate in the iKeepSafe Safe Harbor program. We have been granted the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor seal signifying that Our Site SkillsUSA – Career Essentials as well as the software that runs the Site have been reviewed and approved for having policies and practices surrounding the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of personal information from Children consistent with the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor program guidelines. COPPA protects the online privacy of Children under the age of 13; below is an email and phone number for IKeepSafe Safe Harbor program.:

Email: privacy@ikeepsafe.org

If you believe your login or password information has been compromised or any unauthorized use of your account or other breach of security has occurred, you are responsible for promptly notifying us. You can notify us by sending an email to info@skillsusa.org. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to reject, refuse to post, or remove any posting (including private messages) by you, or to deny, restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or any part of the SkillsUSA Sites at any time, for any reason, with or without prior notice or explanation without liability.

We may change or supplement this Terms of Service from time to time. We will post an appropriate notice of changes to the Terms of Service on our site. Terms of Service changes will apply to the information collected from the date we post the revised Terms of Service to the Site, as well as to existing information held by us.

We will not change how data is collected, used or shared under the terms of this agreement in any way without advance notice. Last Revised: October 21, 2021.

Use of the SkillsUSA Sites is provided on an “as is” basis without warranty of any kind, express or implied. You expressly agree that the use of the SkillsUSA Sites is at your sole risk. SkillsUSA does not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted or error free, nor does SkillsUSA make any warranty as to any results that may be obtained by use of the service. SkillsUSA CONNECT makes no other warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, in relation to the service.

SkillsUSA accepts no responsibility for the opinions and information posted or circulated by the users of SkillsUSA Sites. SkillsUSA cannot warrant the accuracy of any information posted on the SkillsUSA Sites and SkillsUSA disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted or circulated on the SkillsUSA Sites. Under no circumstances shall SkillsUSA be liable to you or any other person for any damages, including without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages arising out of or relating to this agreement or the use of the service or site. Your sole and exclusive remedy hereunder shall be for you to discontinue your use of the site and terminate this agreement.

You agree to indemnify, hold harmless and defend SkillsUSA, its shareholders, directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any action, cause, claim, damage, debt, demand or liability, including reasonable costs and attorney’s fees, asserted by any person, arising out of or relating to: (a) this Agreement; (b) your use of the SkillsUSA Sites, including any data or work transmitted or received by you; (c) your use of or posting any materials that infringe third party intellectual property, right of publicity or right of privacy rights; or (d) any libelous, slanderous, indecent or other statement concerning any person made or republished by you.

These Terms of Service constitute a binding agreement. Failure to comply with these Terms of Service may result in account revocation and other legal action. The laws of the Virginia, United States of America, shall govern the Terms of Service and the relationship between you and SkillsUSA, without regard to conflict of law provisions. You and SkillsUSA agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts serving the county of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States of America.

Regarding FERPA and California AB 1584 (Buchanan) Privacy of Pupil Records: 3rd-Party Digital Storage & Education Software (Education Code section 49073.1), SkillsUSA will abide to the following:

1. Student records obtained by SkillsUSA from an educational institution continue to be the property of and under the control of the educational institution. The educational institution retains full ownership rights to the personal information and education records it provides to SkillsUSA.
2. SkillsUSA Sites users may retain possession and control of their own generated content. However, there is a feature where students are given user access and can create content. This content is owned by the educational institution. However, users also have the absolute right to access and download their content.
3. SkillsUSA will not use any information in a student record for any purpose other than those required or specifically permitted by the SkillsUSA Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
4. Parents, legal guardians, or eligible students may review personally identifiable information in the student’s records and correct erroneous information by contacting their educational institution. Additionally, SkillsUSA Sites users may access, correct, update, or delete personal information in their profile by signing into the specific site, accessing their user account, and making the appropriate changes.
5. SkillsUSA is committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of student records. Towards this end, we take the following actions: (a) we limit employee access to student data to only those employees with a need to such access to fulfill their job responsibilities; (b) we conduct background checks on our employees that may have access to student data; (c) we conduct regular employee privacy and data security training and education; and (e) we protect personal information with technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security safeguards in order to protect against unauthorized access, release or use.
6. In the event of an unauthorized disclosure of a student’s records, SkillsUSA will (1) promptly notify Users unless specifically directed not to provide such notification by law enforcement officials. Notification shall identify: (i) the date and nature of the unauthorized use or disclosure; (ii) the Private Data used or disclosed; (iii) general description of what occurred including who made the unauthorized use or received the unauthorized disclosure; (iv) what SkillsUSA has done or shall do to mitigate any effect of the unauthorized use or disclosure; (v) what corrective action SkillsUSA has taken or shall take to prevent future similar unauthorized use or disclosure; and (vi) who at SkillsUSA the User can contact. SkillsUSA will keep the User fully informed until the incident is resolved.
7. SkillsUSA will delete or de-identify personal information when it is no longer needed, upon expiration or termination of our agreement with an educational institution with any deletion or de-identification to be completed according to the terms of our agreement with the educational institution, or at the direction or request of the educational institution.
8. SkillsUSA agrees to work with educational institution to ensure compliance with FERPA and the Parties will ensure compliance by providing parents, legal guardians or eligible students with the ability to inspect and review student records and to correct any inaccuracies therein as described in statement (4) above.
9. SkillsUSA prohibits using personally identifiable information in student records to engage in targeted advertising.

SkillsUSA welcomes comments and questions on this Terms of Service. If you have any questions, please contact us:

The information you provide to us will also be covered by our privacy policy, and SkillsUSA will work to reply to your questions or comments within 30 days.