Windhoek
Around 117 young skilled youths in various trades are hard at work fine-tuning their capabilities in various trades to take part in the WorldSkills regional competition slated for Windhoek from September 14 to 17 at Ramatex.
After the regional judgement ten finalists will get the opportunity to compete with other youths from around the world in Dubai during the bi-annual WorldSkills competition.
President of WorldSkills Simon Bartley who has been in the country for the last three weeks wished all Namibians good luck during the regional competition.
“I have seen and heard of the preparations that are being made – this is a major step in what the government has planned for its people. I see a future of high level skills available for all throughout the country, which will improve the economy of Namibia to be better placed to be able to compete in a global market, a market that extends beyond your borders through Southern Africa, to the continent of Africa and indeed around the world. I thank everybody who has participated in this exercise and give credit to a job well done,” he stated.
He said the WorldSkills competition is the institution’s flagship event, which is held every two years and is the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world that truly reflects global industry. “The competitors represent the best of their peers and are selected from skill competitions in WorldSkills member countries and regions.”
Competitors are all under the age of 23 years (except for four skills that have the age limit of 25). Bartley said it is expected from the entrants to demonstrate technical abilities both individually and collectively to execute specific tasks for which they study and/or perform in their workplace.
He said one of the main legacies of the WorldSkills competitions is to give visibility and importance to professional education as one of the true tools of socio-economic transformation. The competition also provides leaders in industry, government and education with the opportunity to exchange information and best practices regarding industry and professional education.
“New ideas and processes inspire school-aged youth to dedicate themselves to technical and technological careers towards a better future.”
Sens Shoolongo, WorldSkills manager in Namibia, said it is the first time since its acceptance that Namibia will enter the high-level competition.
“It’s our first WorldSkills competition. Namibia joined in 2011 as an associate member and became a full member in 2015. This year we grow the coverage whereby we entered ten skills areas for our inaugural skills competition where we have between ten to twelve in each area of young Namibians that were drawn from different institutions, the private sector, government, NGOs and even correctional services and armed forces,” said Shoolongo.
“We had a selection competition earlier from 27 to 28 May in various regions and we selected participants from there. The competition in September will be hosted at Ramatex which will be an exciting platform.” Apart from the qualifying rounds, participants will walk away with big prizes and the winner will be expected to represent Namibia at next year’s international competition in Dubai.
He said the judges would be drawn from a pool of trainers from various vocational schools and experts from industries.
“We had a series of training sessions where we had to train these people to understand what skills competitions are about, what the required standards are, how to judge the test projects and how to prepare projects.
“In terms of technical expertise we had a technical advisor who is being trained in Korea specifically for the upcoming event,” he further stated.