9 December 2009
WorldSkills Champions take Stockholm by storm
By Christine Scoot, Marketing & Project Coordinator, WSI
The setting is the ‘Quality VET – a key to success’ conference in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden. For the past 24 hours the topic had been about raising the quality and attractiveness in VET (Vocational Education and Training), a regularly used term within the European Union. The participants were people from ministries representing all of the member countries of the European Union. The conference was hosted by ENQA-VET (European Network for Quality Assurance) and Skolverket and was an associated event of the Swedish European Presidency.
On the second day of conference and about 1½ hour before the conclusion of the conference, four past WorldSkills Champions* took the stage, in a panel discussion, very similar to the one that took place during the WorldSkills Leaders Forum in Calgary, September 2009, if you were one of the lucky ones to attend the session.
Keith Brumfitt from the UK who is a Consultant to ENQA-VET, moderated the panel discussion between:
- Sofie Danielsson, Florist, Sweden (participated in WSC2007**)
- Joakim Karlsson, Sheet Metal Worker, Sweden (WSC2009)
- Helle Barnholt, Restaurant Service, Denmark (WSC2009)
- Jan Nevels, Technical Engineer (competed in Manufacturing Team Challenge) The Netherlands (WSC2009)
The panel was asked to explain what competing in the WorldSkills Competition has meant to them. They all agreed that it was a great honour to get the opportunity to represent their country, but also that it was a great personal experience and assured them that they have succeeded even though the image of Vocational Education is not always strong. For Helle Barnholt it gave her confidence in the strength of her people skills. You might think that it is given for someone working in Restaurant Service, but for Helle this is when she fully realised that ‘I am really good at what I do!’ Joakim Karlsson said, during the presentation round ‘I am a farmer boy and my English is not very good but I am the second best Metal Roofer in the world.’
All four Champions have been able to choose any company that they wished to work for since competing. Jan Nevels, from The Netherlands, wants to travel while working, so when the panel was asked if they could imagine going abroad, they got an on-the-spot job application from Jan. He encourages that the schools and companies work together to create such opportunities.
Given the theme of the conference: “Quality in VET”, one participant asked the panel what a good teacher is. Again the panel agreed that a good teacher is someone who is motivated and fully updated on everything happening in the skill area because the teacher is still working with the skill. Another example given by Sofie Danielsson was that the more young quality skilled workers are being trained, the bigger possibility is for them to become new very highly qualified teachers, trainers and business owners.
When asked if competing in skill competitions is a way to raise and improve the quality in vocational skills and training, it was a unanimous YES – so let’s just agree right now that we keep on moving forward to promote these excellent young motivated skilled workers!
*A WorldSkills Champion is someone who has competed at the international level through the WorldSkills Competition, regardless of winning a medal or not.
**WorldSkills Competition