• Jack Dusseldorp - President of the IVTO
• Franz Schropp - Vice President, Chairman of WorldSkills Technical Committee
• Dr Theodor Niehaus - Managing Director Festo Didactic
• Martin Williams - Chief Expert Seoul 2001 & WorldSkills Liaison & Marketing St Gallen 2003
• Benoit Maisonneuve - Chief Expert St Gallen 2003
• Andy Heath - Deputy Chief Expert Seoul 2001 & St Gallen 2003
• Eckhard von Terzi - Product Manager for Modular Production Systems

"The WorldSkills Mechatronics Competition was the result of a collaborative pioneering effort between Australian and Dutch enthusiasts with the support of Festo back in 1991. It is now the biggest and most technologically advanced team event in WorldSkills; with 20 participating member countries competing for world honours at the Seoul event in September 2001.

What excites me about both the Mechatronics and MTC competitions is that they reveal the inherent courage and creativity of very skilled young people who are able to solve problems that make a real difference in everyday life. They are the real champions when it comes to scoring economic goals for their countries."

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Preparations for the next WorldSkills Competition St. Gallen, Switzerland are in full swing.

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At Festo Didactic we are so convinced of the value of the WorldSkills Competition that we not only partnered up with WorldSkills to become their first ever Event Sponsor, we also planned to have a global meeting of our 52 companies in Seoul, starting as the competition finished. Due to the horrific events on the 11 September, that meeting was cancelled at short notice –most of us did not get to see the competition in person.

On Day 4, in what has now become tradition in the relaxed atmosphere after the final section had been completed, we saw silent images of a magnificent finale: As Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" thundered to a climax, Festo´s two airfish glided gracefully into the Mechatronics arena and dipped and soared over the delighted competitors. Then the Mechatronics choir sang the newly texted Anthem to the tune of Frère Jacques in three-part canon. There was that famous Mechatronics Team again – over 60 people, aged between 18 and 60 from across the globe.

I would like to express my thanks to all of that team - and those working in the background allowing us to share the excitement via the web – for their contribution to another successful competition. And congratulations to all competitors on their excellent performance.

Sorry you missed it? Your next chance is in St. Gallen in 2003! See you there...

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The Mechatronics competition brings together young people and experts from over 20 countries and throws them into an arena where everyone's skills are put to the test for 4 days. You can see world-class Mechatronics teamwork in this competition – over 80 people working together in one huge team.

In the past the competition used only time and machine performance as criteria. In Seoul we took out the assembly of "known" stations (ones the competitors know) against the clock. We also experimented with free design of solutions to a problem. We have now formally written free design into the trade description for the competition in St. Gallen 2003. This will enable us to develop towards using productivity as the main criteria for the competition in future.

All this completely in line with five general trends in industrial training that can be identified:

The first trend is the systematic implementation of Manufacturing Excellence philosophies such Total Productive Maintenance, Just-in-Time, Lean Management or the Toyota Production System.

Implementing these strategies has demanded a radical change in thinking on the shopfloor resulting in the spread of ‘high-involvement’ and team-oriented work practices where

• operators take ownership of their equipment and accept responsibility for its maintenance and performance

• technicians are freed up to improve productivity, reduce complexity and cut costs

The second trend is the the huge requirement for new forms of training that cater for the considerable change in attitude throughout a company in order to meet these demands.

A third trend is that training has become much more focussed – the pressure of global competition demand that companies train "everything that is necessary and only what is necessary".

The fourth trend is that training is changing from the purely technical training of the 80´s and 90´s to training that addresses the development of the personal qualities and skills essential to effective teamwork. The Mechatronics competition demonstrates several ways of doing this.

The final trend is the development of global networking – to which the two yearly WorldSkills competition contributes significantly. Better still - recognising this trend, the WorldSkills Organisation has now instituted the WorldSkills Leaders Forum to take place parallel to the competition every two years - with the express aim of developing networking and providing a forum for people to share best practices and innovations.

"If you take part, you always win!"

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Yet Mechatronics still has lots of future ahead. I am very excited at the idea of preparing the next World Skills Mechatronics competition. The team of experts and the support of the sponsor Festo, make a great environment for creating new challenges for competitors.

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To start with, I wish to diverge from the topic of Mechatronics and the International WorldSkills competition to mention and thank Martin Williams (Festo Didactic, Germany) for all of his hard work, commitment and passion for Mechatronics. This year, Martin has chosen to step down as Chief Expert (since 1997, of whom I worked with this year as Deputy Chief Expert) and move on to other aspects of the competition. In his wake, he has left some huge shoes to fill, of which I pass on my full support to the new Chief Expert, Benoit Maisonneuve (Canada). I shall work with Benoit also as Deputy Chief Expert in 2003. It is with some creativity on Martin's behalf along with Eckhard von Terzi (Festo Didactic) that we have seen some changes in Mechatronics over the last two competitions - changes that have pushed our competitors even more and challenged us to be more creative in our approach also.

As for the competition, we have taken some huge leaps and bounds over the last few competitions and are still (I believe) one of, if not the most exciting category to watch at the International Competition. The aspect of working jointly with a fellow colleague at the job is a critical component of the work force as we see it today, considering during breakdown scenario's it is vital to have your equipment/machinery working again as soon as possible. Teamwork is one industrial practice we have incorporated into Mechatronics but we still have many other areas to cover. With an ever-changing expectation of industry on training and educational sectors throughout the world, I'm sure there will be many more challenges ahead to overcome and many more challenges to set for the competitors/candidates.

The young talent we saw in Seoul, Korea was a credit to themselves and all of their trainers/facilitators and supporting organisations in their respective countries. I am excited when I contemplate what I am going to see of the new up and coming young work force from around the world in 2003 in St Gallen, Switzerland. The skills they develop during their training and then transfer back into their careers at home is astounding and I hope this continues to grow and we continue to be one of the largest categories within the competition. All this, as well as attracting the best our industries have to offer, by being a competition all industries want to be involved in and see as an investment in their future.

In closing, I would like to thank all of the other experts, translators, the shop master, the web site co-ordinators, work shop assistants and Festo Didactic for their on going support, as without all of these people this category would not be as big a success as it is today nor would it continue to be in the future. I apologise to anyone that I have forgotten, though you all know who you are that help make Mechatronics great.

Thank you!

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The Mechatronics competition has grown in just 10 years to the largest trade at the WorldSkills Competition, introducing new ideas on which criteria are really valid, and reflecting on how trades can be made more informative and attractive for our prime target group, young people. This has led to more focus on the soft skill needed for the teamwork that is so essential for mechatronics."

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