Competition Preparation Week 2019

Competition Preparation Week (CPW) for WSC2019 Kazan, Russia was hosted in a very cold (-20 average) Kazan from the 21 – 26 January 2019.

The aim of the CPW is an opportunity for the Host City/Country to get their Work Shop Managers together with WorldSkills Skill Competition Managers (SCM) and Chief Experts (CE) to go through the Infrastructure lists, floor plans and alike to ensure all skills have everything required for the Competition. The SCM and CEs also prepare their skill management plans as well as work on the marking and assessment criteria for their Skill. Global Skills Partners are also invited to attend the CPW and speak to the Skills regarding provided products.

Technical Delegates from all 80 WorldSkills member Nations are required to attend the CPW to attend meetings and training sessions organised by WorldSkills to prepare for the Competition.

A representative group of Team Leaders of the 80 member nations are also invited to attend a Team Leader Working Group to attend meetings and check on the facilities and events for the Competitors.

WorldSkills Australia is always well represented by our highly regarded Chief Experts as well as those now in WorldSkills International roles as Skill Competition Managers and Skill Advisors

It’s a very busy 4 days of meetings and training sessions which also included a site visit to the new Competition venue ‘Kazan Expo’, the accommodation venues for the teams and the opening and closing ceremony venues. We were very impressed with the hospitality received from Russia and look forward to going back in August to what should be a fantastic Competition with all the work being done.

The One School One Country is a programme held in conjunction with the WorldSkills Competition. Schools in the Host country are matched with a WorldSkills Member country or region. In class, students learn about the values, traditions and culture of the WorldSkills Member that they have adopted, as well as information about the skilled careers represented at the Competition. Finally, students and Competitors meet on the day of the Opening Ceremony when students welcome the Competitors at their schools. I had the honour of meeting the School allocated to our team ‘Multi-disciplined Polylingual Gymnasium 180’.

We also got to see some highlights of the beautiful city (mostly when driving between events), experience Russian culture and see the WS Flag after its journey to Space and around all the Countries that hosted the WorldSkills Competition, including visiting the 2018 WSA National Championships, and celebration of 30 years since we hosted in Sydney in 1988.

Whilst we were in Kazan, I had the pleasure of presenting Life Member pins to 2018 Recipients Jane Stokie and Paul Condran – together with Darren May designer of the pin, and from Pallion who produced the pin, in front of the team of Aussies working at the CPW.