Seoul Leaders Forum
Dear Colleagues -
I am very pleased to welcome you here this morning.
From a WorldSkills perspective, this occasion is doubly important, because it not only recognises your key role as an "Official Observer" representing one of our 36 member organisations, but also because, collectively, you are leaders at the forefront of vocational training and skills development in the world today.
So it is very fitting that Dr Yi, President of Festo Korea - representing our global sponsor partner - Festo Didactic, has briefly outlined some of the challenges facing us in all parts of the world.
Please note I referred to Festo as a "sponsor partner" rather than simply a "sponsor".
As a "sponsor partner" to WorldSkills, Festo, for over a decade now, has provided us and many of our members with world-wide expertise and leadership in technological skill development and teamwork practices through the Mechatronics Competition. This has been the basis for our development of the Manufacturing Team Challenge which is being launched here in Seoul thanks to the support of our Korean hosts.
In the decade ahead we plan to develop a select number of such sponsor partnerships to ensure WorldSkills stays in touch with the very latest advances in technology and skills development emerging in key sectors of the global economy.
WorldSkills celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, and we now have 36 country members on all five continents; although the majority are concentrated in Europe and Asia.
By 2010 we hope to have at least 50 members by drawing on the growing interest in our activities from Eastern Europe and Latin America.
We also plan to have at least doubled the number of young participants in our associated activities around the world.
Our organisation, with its emphasis - indeed reliance - on learning relationships, cultural diversity, cooperation, exchange and partnership has not only motivated several generations of young skilled people to achieve excellence; it has also provided many thousands of teachers and trainers with the opportunity to benchmark training standards and practices.
Of course there is still a long way to go - both to provide equitable access to vocational training and education, as well as to solve growing mismatches between the demand for and the supply of skilled people in all parts of the world.
Yet WorldSkills and its associated activities in our member countries provide a strategically useful platform and forum for skills promotion and development - immeasurably enhanced by the world wide web.
As well as being proud of our success, we recognise that WorldSkills faces significant challenges ahead:
Let me briefly mention three key challenges.
Firstly, as Dr Yi's presentation has highlighted, how do we best reflect the new skills and the new ways of working across the whole range of competitions we are renowned for?
Secondly, How do we more effectively champion the importance of high quality vocational training and education to both the public and private sectors, and at the same time convince the world media that work skills are at least as important as sport skills to the future of society?
And thirdly, how do we reach out to the developing world and share the knowledge and skills of all our members to achieve our world wide mission?
In your collective capacity as WorldSkills Leaders I ask you to help develop achievable solutions to these and other key issues, and to share your experiences and expertise while you are with us here in Seoul.
As my colleague Laurent Thibault will soon explain, you will have the opportunity to participate in "roundtable discussion" with colleagues from around the world on Sunday morning.
I believe this meeting today marks the beginning of a new era for WorldSkills.
It signals that we see our Competitions as a means to achieving a larger goal; and not simply as an end in itself.
It marks the beginning of more intensive strategic cooperation with select industry partners and with our members.
And I believe it is also the forerunner of successive WorldSkills Leaders Forums which will provide opportunities for you to meet and learn from others who are involved with the training of young people in all parts of the world.
Thank you for your attention. Please now welcome Laurent Thibault, Vice President for Special Affairs and colleague from Canada to the podium.
to Dr Yi's presentation
back to Seoul Leaders Forum page
Jack Dusseldorp presenting at Leaders Forum