26 August 2015

Projects from WorldSkills Foundation

WorldSkills Digital Challenge

After four days of intense brainstorming, developing, coding, and designing of IT solutions, the first-ever WorldSkills Digital Challenge had a winning team that delivered an innovative solution to the critical issue around the low rate of blood donation in Brazil. The "Red Team" from the WorldSkills Digital Challenge - Andrew Seeley (AU), Mateus Santo (BR), Jessica Tarasoff (BR), and Diogo Doreto (BR) - developed a fun and viable mobile phone application aimed at encouraging youth to donate blood. The "Red Team" analysed why people donate, and designed the application to motivate youth to invite and challenge their friends to donate blood.

The winning team received a EUR 1,500 cash prize from WorldSkills Foundation, a LG G Watch from Google, and EUR 1,000 worth of IT courses offered by FIAP (University of Information Technology and Administration, São Paulo).

Each NGO participating in the Digital Challenge was also rewarded with EUR 500 as a contribution to further develop the solutions provided by the participants.

The solution-oriented results from this group of amazing and dedicated IT professionals are incredible, especially given such a short period of time in the real-time context of WorldSkills São Paulo 2015. The WorldSkills Foundation will be following up with all participating NGOs regarding the potential for further development, implementation, and scalability of the Digital Challenge IT solutions.

WorldSkills Listen Up

Together with 3M, DMDL, and SENAI, WorldSkills Foundation launched the initiative of "WorldSkills Listen Up" to increase the awareness, and promote the importance of hearing protection - especially to youth.

Over the four days during WorldSkills São Paulo 2015, visitors - including thousands of young adults and school children - enjoyed the 5D animation inside the campaign booth, and learned in multi-sensory terms how incredibly loud our daily life might be.

Some of the teenagers came out of the booth realizing that hearing loss is irreversible; their comments indicated that this very immediate experience made them think carefully about the consequences of listening to loud music for prolonged periods of time.

As a part of the initiative campaign 1,189 Competitors and all Delegates received 3M earplugs with the exclusive WorldSkills-themed design by Ricardo Vivian, the WorldSkills Champion from Brazil. As this design included a portable case for the earplugs, it became very popular for both Delegates and Champions - a solution to the universal challenge of too much noise, and a very practical, short term opportunity to use the earplugs on the airplane journey home!

A New Look at Skills

Working with project partner Autodesk, Autodesk technology, and Student Experts, WorldSkills Foundation brought a new level of understanding Skills through its "A New Look At Skills" project. Throughout the Competition there were clear and creative videos provided to Skills Ambassadors at Knowledge Spots at all 46 Official Skills competition areas, providing the public easy-to-grasp knowledge about the Skill and test project for Competitors. Eye-catching innovative 3D models added a unique dimension to explaining what it takes to compete in skill competitions such as Mechanical Engineering Design - CAD and Stonemasonry. The New Look At Skills project definitely enhanced the visitor experience at WorldSkills São Paulo 2015, and the videos and models represent a significant resource for educators, Expert, and Competitors.

Community Plumbing Challenge

Extending the knowledge gained from the ongoing series of Healthabitat Sanitation Studios, and the 2014 Water Innovation Challenge, the WorldSkills Foundation and partners are beginning to design and develop the next phase Community Plumbing Challenge. The project aim is to combine a range of Champion skill sets – Plumbing, Construction, Engineering, and Design – to build something new, innovative, and in the heart of a community-in-need. At WorldSkills São Paulo 2015, the focus was not on the Challenge itself; rather, the spotlight was on the collaborative cross-skill Competition between Graphic Design and Web Design to design and produce something together - a logo/emblem for the Community Plumbing Challenge that would be produced on a poster and used on the web. An added dimension was engaging the visitors in public voting for their favourite design - 676 votes were cast in this "people's choice" aspect to the competition. News about the Community Plumbing Challenge will be published as the initiative develops.

For a look at the daily highlights of all the WorldSkills Foundation projects featured at the Competition, watch: