This year was Harbor Freight Tools for School’s fifth year partnering with SkillsUSA’s National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC). The annual event features thousands of SkillsUSA chapter members who qualified for the national championships by winning state and regional skilled trades competitions. High school students make up 75 percent of the students competing at NLSC.

Harbor Freight Tools for Schools has been a SkillsUSA partner since 2018. This year, we provided travel scholarships for 47 students making the journey to the event. We also awarded cash prizes to the winners in 27 skilled trades competitions.

This year, we added in a booth, which allowed our team to meet participating students, their teachers and other SkillsUSA partners. Our booth was fortuitously across from the TeamWorks competition area, so we had a front row seat to the building of tiny homes by talented skilled trades students. It was a joy to see competitors who had worked so hard to reach this milestone exemplifying excellence and teamwork.