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WorldSkills London 2011

City & Guilds encouraging region to attend leading skills competition.

The City & Guilds Caribbean Office is encouraging the region to attend WorldSkills London 2011 which will be held from 5-8 October 2011 at ExCeL London, UK. City & Guilds, one of the leading vocational education providers globally, is The Premier Event-sponsor. WorldSkills is the largest skills competition in the world, which according to Chris Jones, Director General of City & Guilds, "provides a real opportunity for promoting vocational occupations as attractive and long-term career opportunities".

At WorldSkills, young people from across the world compete to become the best of the best. This year's London-based event will involve more than 1,000 Competitors from over 50 countries/regions competing in 45 vocational skills over 4 days of intense competition. Competitors generally are young people aged 22 or under who will compete for medals in 46 categories from seven sectors, ranging from creative arts and fashion to transportation and logistics. Previous named the Skills Olympics, gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in skills areas ranging from hairdressing and beauty therapy to landscape skills and welding.

Guy Hewitt, Regional Manager and Head of the City & Guilds Caribbean Office, indicated that "City & Guilds has committed £1 million to support the competition and has been campaigning for vocational education and training agencies in the region to participate in the Event that demonstrates the value of vocation education and training for today's youth." The WorldSkills competition takes place every two years in a different WorldSkills member country. WorldSkills London 2011 will be the 41st WorldSkills competition. The 2009 competition was held in Calgary, Canada.

The Caribbean will be represented by Team Jamaica. Jamaica has been a member of WorldSkills International since 2004 and made its first appearance at a WorldSkills competition in Japan in 2007. Significantly, WorldSkills Jamaica hosted the WorldSkills General Assembly 2010. Barbados is also a member of WorldSkills. City & Guilds City & Guilds is hopeful that other Caribbean countries will join WorldSkills International as an opportunity to further inspire future generations of killed, high-quality, talented professionals. .

When asked how the WorldSkills competition changed their lives, Anesha Simpson-Nembhard, Jamaican IT specialist and competitor stated that "the experience was overwhelming. It made me believe anything is possible. I became an international star just by doing my skill." Since winning the Best of the Nation Award in IT Software Applications, Anesha has been advocating for the need for a tailored education system that tends to the individual needs of students: "Some people work with their hands, some people love to dance, some people love math. There are many different types of students, and the stigma attached to skills needs to be broken."

City & Guilds recently strengthened its support for vocational education and training in the region with the opening of a Barbados-based Caribbean Office in April 2011. The organisation, which has been offering qualifications in the Caribbean for over 50 years, is working closely with countries in the region to enhance skills and productivity through workplace qualifications and on the greater integration of technical and vocational skills into the education system.