Trades & Technology Apprenticeship
Skills Competitions - World Skills
Started as a way to encourage young people to choose vocation training, WorldSkills International has grown from its Spanish roots to a global competition and international showcase of skilled workers and their trades.
WorldSkills International (WSI) is a not-for-profit international association open to agencies and other organizations that are responsible for promoting vocational education and training in their respective country or region.
WSI competitions are now held every other year in one of its 50 member countries or regions.
For more information, see the WorldSkills International Competition website.
| WorldSkills History | ||||||
| After WW2 there was a great need for skilled workers around the globe. The problem was convincing youth, parents, teachers and prospective employers that the future depended on effective vocational training. A brilliant solution came from Spain. It was a simple concept: have young people and their parents come and watch different trades people work. Their first national competition took place in 1947. Its success led to an Iberian competition (Spain and Portugal) in 1950 with the rest of Europe gradually getting involved for the first WorldSkills competition in 1953. A year later, an official international organization was formed to set the rules for the competition. By 1970 the organization had member countries on every continent. As well as being the founder, Spain has remained a major player in the organization hosting the international competition 11 times. Canada hosted WorldSkills for the first time in 1999 in Montreal and 10 years later in Calgary. Check out more history of WorldSkills on the WSI website. |
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| WorldSkills Legacy at Lakeland College | ||||||
| Lakeland College trades students will be residual beneficiaries of the 2009 WorldSkills competition as they will soon be able to integrate some of the new state-of-the-art equipment, tools and technology used during the skills competition into their own training programs. The international 2009 WorldSkills competition was held in Calgary and hosted by government and industry partners. The Alberta government spent some $16 million on new trades-related equipment and technology for use during the competition. Now that the event is over, the provincial government has made the new items available to Alberta secondary schools that offer career and technology studies, and to colleges and technical institutes that offer apprenticeship and technical training. Lakeland College received a total of 32 items listed in the automobile technology and electronics categories including fluke scope meters, generators, bench power supplies, transmissions and work benches. The estimated total value of items to be received is over $106,900. Bert Samuelson, the dean of trades and technology, says the new pieces of state-of-the-art equipment and technology will provide many benefits to students and the college as a training centre. “The new items that we will receive are used by industry throughout Canada and around the world,” says Samuelson. “The exposure to these technologies will give our students an edge as they go into the workforce, and it will also increase Lakeland College’s training capacity.” The 2009 event held in Calgary was the 40th offering of the WorldSkills competition. A biennial event, the competition aims to promote the development of trades skills globally and to address labour shortages and competency standards. It also supports education programs by motivating and encouraging young adults to explore career options in skills, trades and technologies. |
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