PDP Validation Study

SkillsUSA’s employability skills training curriculum, the Professional Development Program, was designed to meet employers’ needs for employees who possess the core skills necessary for employment. The program guides students through 84 employability skills activities that help meet the competencies outlined by the U.S. Secretary of Labor’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS).

The program has been credited with significantly improving the employability/workplace skills of participants and is widely offered as a solution to gaps in employability skills of future workers. However, until this study there has been no research to validate the program’s success.

Additionally, 20 Massachusetts high schools and member schools of SkillsUSA are involved in the Total Participation Plan which requires the use of the Professional Development Program; as such it is important for SkillsUSA to validate the program’s success.

The study, commissioned by the SkillsUSA Massachusetts Board of Directors was designed specifically to determine how students perform in the workplace after completing the Professional Development Program. In particular, do they exhibit the employability/workplace skills needed to be a successful employee within the workplace? And, at what level of competency do the students exhibit the needed employability skills?

The research also hoped to identify any missing competencies that could be incorporated in a future revision of the program.

Through this research SkillsUSA has gain a better understanding of the program’s effectiveness for the user (school districts) and the customer (employers) and provide support for the continued use of federal and state education funds for the program and make the case for expansion of the program.

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