15 March 2011
Twenty Provincial Champions with a ticket to London
By WorldSkills South Tyrol, Italy
Medallists honoured at the Provincial Professional Skills Championships
Twenty young people have taken a giant step towards taking part in the WorldSkills Competition in London this October. As of February 19 the Competition concluded and the medallists have been picked in the 20 skill areas. The 20 newly crowned Provincial Champions have received their medals, as have all those placing second and third.
For the 170 apprentices and journeymen from trades and crafts, Restaurant Service and Landscape Gardening, the Bolzano trade fairgrounds were turned into a huge workshop for three days. In the end, a jury of specialists evaluated the work done by the young participants and selected the winners.
The young wall and floor tillers, for example, had 17 hours to lay a variety of tiles to correspond exactly to the pattern specified in a drawing. The young plumbers tightened fittings, soldered and welded to complete an intricate piping structure. The car technicians, in the meantime, looked for the causes of engine, brake and electronic problems, while the young hairdressers showed their mastery of challenging hairstyles.
At the awards ceremony, the heads of the trade groups presented the medals to the successful young trades people in the presence of Provincial Education Counsellor Sabina Kasslatter Mur, LVH President Gert Lanz and representatives from training institutions.
“The achievements offered by the young apprentices and journey people during the three days of Competition were impressive, and they demonstrate a superior level of skill,” Kasslatter Mur stated, adding that the performance was the result of the training provided by vocational schools and apprenticing firms. “The economy needs young skilled workers in order to stay competitive,” the provincial counsellor observed.
LVH President Gert Lanz thanked all of the young people participating in the Provincial Championships for their eagerness for excellence and their willingness to give their best efforts in presenting the vocations in public. “The pressure to achieve is not really pressure to you when you enjoy what you do and do it with dedication,” Lanz said, presenting the young trades people with some advice to take with them. The LVH, the main organiser of the Provincial Championships, is very pleased at the more than 15,000 visitors who attended the Provincial Championships as well as the Futurum fair for training and education, which was held simultaneously for the first time. The majority of those attending included about 6000 secondary school students, invited by the LVH to the Bolzano fairgrounds to obtain detailed information on vocational and educational options.
For more information visit LVH’s website.