One School One Country program - WorldSkills Shizuoka 2007

During the recent Technical Committee meetings in Numazu City, Japan in April, 2007, a new program was announced to the Technical Delegates (TDs). “One School One Country” is designed so that each Member team coming to the 39th WorldSkills Competition is paired up with a local school in the Shizuoka Prefecture. This program is a special education program designed for Numazu City’s elementary and junior high school students. On the last day of the Technical Committee meetings, a student from each school was brought in to meet their TD. Emotions were high as the students and the TDs and began to exchange names, and the schools presented gifts of artwork to their Member teams.  

The joy of this program is that each Member team will get to correspond with their school in advance through email, letters, exchange of photos, etc. The school will then research and learn as much about “their” Member team over the next several months and become a personal cheer squad. Besides cheering, the schools hope that this program will encourage students to develop and research a variety of areas. For example, to learn about the history of WorldSkills International, to study the culture of participating countries/regions, to learn about each skill category, to experience cultural exchanges, to recognise the importance of skills, and to see the unique exchange and comparison of skills.

It is up to the Members how much they correspond with the schools in advance and what information or materials that they send the schools. Some ideas would be to send the school flags, music and photos of your country/region so that the students can embrace the idea of cheering your competitors on during the Competition. Your member team may also like to bring small gifts which reflect the culture of your country/region, to present to your allocated School in November.

If you have any questions on the One School One Country program please let me know. You can send your questions or comments to michelle.bussey@worldskills.org