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Albert Vidal Award

The Albert Vidal Award is a prestigious award, named after the founder of WorldSkills International (formerly known as the International Vocational Training Organisation – IVTO). During the first thirty-one WorldSkills Competitions (formerly known as the Vocational Training Competitions), Francisco Albert Vidal, from Spain, was responsible for the achievement of the original goals in a changing world: 33 years as an untiring promoter in his position as Secretary General and seven years as President of the international organization constantly presenting new ideas. The Vocational Training Competitions became his life's work and the international organization was shaped into what it is today. In memory of Albert Vidal, the Award recognizes the Competitor that achieves the highest number of points across all skill competitions.

The winner of the Albert Vidal Award is determined by Competitors’ results on the WorldSkills Scale, a point scale that reflects Competitors’ achievements on the 100 mark scale in each skill competition. The system of converting marks out of 100 to a common scale was originally developed by the then WorldSkills President, Cees Beuk, after the WorldSkills Competition in 1985 held in Osaka, Japan. This new system was developed upon the request from the Technical Committee Chair René Gonthier and his vision of making the skill competitions scores more comparable and universal.

With the new system, it became possible to compare the results of Competitors from skill competition to skill competition, and possibly event to event. The new system became effective in 1988 (when the WorldSkills Competition was held in Sydney, Australia) at which the "Best of the Competition Award" was introduced for the first time. Originally a 500 point scale was used, but as the number of Members in WorldSkills grew, there were a few weaknesses with the calculation used, so after a comprehensive analysis from a statistician and thorough review by WorldSkills International, the WorldSkills Scale was introduced at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.

After Albert Vidal’s death in October 1993 the Award was renamed (proposed by Tjerk Dusseldorp, WSI President at that time) from the "Best of the Competition Award" to the "Albert Vidal Award" in order to honour the contributions of Albert Vidal for his decades of devotion to the WorldSkills movement. The new name of the award was introduced in 1995 when the WorldSkills Competition took place in Lyon, France.

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Fill youth with enthusiasm through special action! Convince young people’s parents, trainers and company chiefs that a promising future is possible only through good vocational training” -Francisco Albert Vidal


 

Albert Vidal Award
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Junwei Lu and Huixuan Xie
Winners of the Albert Vidal Award in 2024
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Anastasiia Kamneva
Winner of the Albert Vidal Award in 2019
Biao Song
Winner of the Albert Vidal Award in 2017
Jeong Woo Seo, Luis Carlos Sanches Machado, and Rianne Chester
Winners of the Albert Vidal Award in 2015
Hyun Woo Won and Shinpei Utsunomiya
Winners of the Albert Vidal Award in 2013
Byeong Teon Bae and Jeong Pyo Gong
Winners of the Albert Vidal Award in 2011
Thiam Shui Tan
Winner of the Albert Vidal Award in 2009
Nicolas Drouin
Winner of the Albert Vidal Award in 2007
Viridis Liew
Winner of the Albert Vidal Award in 2005


 

Competition Skill Name Country/Region Points received
2024, Lyon, France Industry 4.0 Junwei Lu and Huixuan Xie China 900
2019, Kazan, Russia Chemical Laboratory Technology Anastasiia Kamneva Russia 845
2017, Abu Dhabi, UAE Industrial Mechanic Millwright Biao Song China 779
2015, São Paulo, Brazil Automobile Technology
Automobile Technology
Beauty Therapy
Jeong Woo Seo,
Luis Carlos Sanches Machado,
Rianne Chester
Korea
Brazil
United Kingdom
571
2013, Leipzig, Germany Information Network Cabling
Construction Metal Work
Shinpei Utsunomiya, 
Hyun Woo Won
Japan
Korea
565
2011, London, United Kingdom Mobile Robotics Byeong Yeon Bae and 
Jeong Pyo Gong
Korea 588
2009 Calgary, Canada  IT Network Systems Administration Thiam Shui Tan Singapore 570 
2007
Shizuoka Japan
Cooking  Nicolas Drouin Canada 568
2005
Helsinki, Finland 
IT Network Systems Administration Viridis Liew Singapore 571
2003
St Gallen, Switzerland
Restaurant Service  Monika Zbinden Switzerland 583
2001
Seoul, Korea
Cooking Mattias Roock Germany 590
1999
Montreal, Canada
Plumbing and Heating  Hyung gu Lee Korea 559