New WorldSkills Champions Trust

The key focus of the WorldSkills Foundation's participation in the General Assembly was to support the WorldSkills Champions Forum 2014 (WSCF2014). Start-up funding of EUR 10,000 was put forward, in order to enable the realization of one project to emerge from the group. WSF Project Developers supported several group work sessions, explaining our current portfolio of projects, project development guidelines and the evaluation process. Previous WSF Innovation Lab participants Wouter Niekus (the Netherlands) and Simon Noerdjan (Suriname) joined the workshop via an online link, to share stories of their previous experiences and encourage the Champions.

The project selected was the “WorldSkills Champions Trust”. The goal for this new platform will be to strengthen communications, activities and general involvement between WorldSkills Champions and the WorldSkills organization. It is envisaged that the new Champions Trust will consist of approximately six international Champions – with each continent being represented – to ensure that all Champions have a consistent voice at organizational level, and create ongoing opportunities for Champions to remain engaged beyond the Competition. In November 2014, a group of participants from WSCF2014 will meet with Champions Forum facilitators, WSF Project Developers and WorldSkills President Simon Bartley to plan the formation of the Champions Trust. The start-up funding pledged by WSF will be used to facilitate this workshop which will be hosted in the UK to coincide with The Skills Show at the NEC, Birmingham. Formation of the Champions Trust will be officially announced at Competition Preparation Week, São Paulo in February 2015. We look forward to sharing more information with Champions and Members as these plans are finalized.

Watch the WSCF2014 presentation in full.