The Namibia Training Authority (NTA) will host the 3rd National Skills Competition at the Ongwediva Trade Fair from 25 to 30 September 2023.
The event is in preparation for the 47th WorldSkills Competition, which will take place from 10 to 15 September 2024 in Lyon, France.
Technical and vocational skills are the focal points, where the best in a variety of skill sets will compete.
The event, which includes an international conference, as well as a careers exhibition focusing on professions within the remit of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), is co-organised by the Ministry of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation and the NTA, through its WorldSkills Namibia office.
NTA WorldSkills Namibia manager Sens Shoolongo said WorldSkills Namibia conducts a National Skills Competition every two years, as a platform from which to select Namibia’s competitors for the WorldSkills Competitions.
“Staging these biennial capacity-building platforms also aligns with our country’s national long-term strategic objective to leverage the technical and vocational education and training sector, and by extension, support economic prosperity for future generations,” he explained.
The official skill competition areas are Automotive Technology; Mechatronics; Welding; Fashion Technology; Bricklaying; Electrical Installations; Joinery; Plumbing and Heating; Refrigeration and Airconditioning; Wall and Floor Tiling; Cooking; Hairdressing; and Restaurant Service.
“Water Technology, as well as Mechanical Engineering Computer-Aided Design, are the two demonstration skill areas,” Shoolongo noted.
Organisers anticipate about 150 competitors to partake, the majority of whom have filtered through a selection competition round which took place from 21 to 22 April 2023, at training institutions across the country.
NSCO2023 is also to include a career exhibition.
“The exhibition has a singular focus on introducing the wide array of viable career options that exist within the technical and vocational sector, to learners and parents, alike. Our focus is on interactivity, simulation, virtual reality and demonstration. We don’t want to tell school learners what plumbers, instrumentation technicians and web technologists do. On the contrary, we want to show them what they do,” Shoolongo noted.
Meanwhile, The NTA entered into an exciting service level agreement with the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), which will see full coverage of the skills competition across all of the broadcaster’s platforms.
Tobias Nambala, the head of TVET regulations and chair of the Steering Committee of the National Skills Competition, said: “Through its technical and vocational careers exhibition component, we are to partner with credible training institutions on introducing Namibian learners and youth to the wide array of technical and vocational career options. Through its international technical and vocational training conference component, we are to converge with academia and industry leaders on how to bolster our technical and vocational sector”. Both the NTA and NBC agree that the partnership with the national broadcaster in reference to coverage of the previous skills competitions, including the Live Your Passion programme on the national broadcaster, has played a pivotal role in breaking stereotypes around technical and vocational skills careers.
NBC director general Stanley Similo is of the view that continued coverage of the skills competition will reach more corporates and hopefully encourage them to involve their brands in the vocational and technical skills sector.