German schools are getting excited to meet 'their' teams

By Katja Orzol, WorldSkills Leipzig 2013

During the Competition Preparation Week students from schools in and around Leipzig met Delegates from the countries/regions they were paired up with in the One School One Country initiative. For students and Members this was the kickoff event to start communicating around the world. Since then emails and letters have been going around the world and many Members have happily received postcard greetings from their partner school. A package filled with chocolate and personal regards surprised the Competitors of Iceland. For Team New Zealand, the students produced a short film bringing their region Wurzen closer in advance of the visit on 2 July.

To inform the students more about the skills they made trips to training centers to get to know many of the Competitors' professions. Schools are busy preparing the programme for the reception of the teams in their schools. They are painting and creating crafts, as they want to show what they have learned about WorldSkills, their partner country and the different skills of WorldSkills. They are eagerly awaiting the personal visits of their teams. Little information is leaking out. There are rumours about football games, barbecues at noon and castle tours. We will see… we are very curious about it.

One thing is for sure, that the students are very exited to meet their superstar Competitors!