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PRESS RELEASE 29th May 2005 at 9.30 a.m. Future of WorldSkills is secured Representatives of WorldSkills organisation believe that the future of the competitions looks bright. WorldSkills 2005 Helsinki has been a success and new skills and countries will be added in the future. Competition has gained a lot of media attention and its reputation has spread widely. Swiss delegate Ms Christine Davatz knows that organising this magnitude event is not easy. “It is important to have these traditional skills as well as skill from high-technology sector”, she reminds. Switzerland has organised three WorldSkills competitions and has been involved in the competitions for fifty years. According to Ms Davatz one of the main objectives of the competitions is to introduce different professions and skills to young people in order to get skilled labour force to working life in the future.
In 2009 WorldSkills competition is held in Canada. According to a Canadian delegate Mr Terry Cooke the appreciation of vocational professions must be improved. This can be reached by concentrating on the parents and teachers, the biggest influencers of the young people. “For some reason many people diminish janitor’s profession and therefore young people want to attend universities. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is essential to remember that also the vocational graduates are as important to the society as the doctors” stresses Mr Cooke. Even though the Finns have succeeded excellently in arrangements, there is always room for improvement. Austrian delegate Mr Peter Kranzlmayr believes that in future competitions the focus should be at the wide variety of skills and information exchange on vocational education. “Population gets older all the time in Europe. Attention must be paid to the education of young people and to the number of students in vocational colleges”, states Mr Kranzlmayr referring to the ageing population. Most importantly the experts must be qualified. ”We should not end up to a situation where the contestants have more skills than the experts” laughs Mr Kranzlmayr. Chairman of WorldSkills Technical Committee Mr Liam Corcoran is pleased. “For the first time in our history we have had time to sit and relax” he claims. WorldSkills 2005 Helsinki competition has gone smoothly and without problems thanks to the careful preparations. “Our aim was to create the best possible working environment for the contestants and we have succeeded in it!”
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