Letter from the CEO – Global Skills Challenge

We kicked off the 2019 edition of Global Skills Challenge at the MCG Olympic Room. 550 guests, from 16 countries experienced the iconic venue, many for the first time.

Our host venues, Kangan Institute, Holmesglen Institute and RMIT University campuses were the perfect hosts for the biggest International Skills event to take place in Australia this year.

24 different skill ranging from Bricklaying to Beauty Therapy, 3D Digital Game Art to Cookery and Carpentry to Car Painting. We also witnessed Cloud Computing run under full International Championship conditions for the first time and the 11 competing nations didn’t let us down with Ireland taking Gold, followed by Australia and Russia in Silver and Bronze place respectively.

The four days of competition saw the best young apprentices and trainees from the 16 competing nations go head to head in a fully simulated WorldSkills Intentional Championships event. Expectations about the standard of competition were high, and the competitors and their skill experts didn’t let us down.

I’m extraordinarily proud of, and grateful to the WorldSkills Australian experts who ran the skill competitions, supported by their international peers. Each gave up time with family and friends to develop the competition projects, develop the marking schemes, assist with procuring equipment and consumables, setup, run, judge and bump out the competitions…. all with the highest standard. Their dedication and commitment to WorldSkills is first class, and each one is a true Champion. But don’t just take my word for it! Here’s some feedback from the visiting nations…..

“I want to extend my sincerest thanks to you and your team for the warm hosting. You might not believe it but I’m already looking forward to Global Skills 2021!”

“This is just to say thank you for inviting us, giving our competitors a competition experience and above all – for being such wonderful hosts (as always). I also would like to acknowledge Australian experts who were very open and helpful with feedback about our competitors.”

“I would like to put on record my genuine thanks. We thoroughly enjoyed the competition and have learned a lot in regard to our gaps in learning for us on our way to Kazan. Thank you for all your help whilst we were in Australia and could I mention in particular the fantastic facilities.”

“We really appreciated the opportunity to participate in GSC 2019. It was an eye-opener and fantastic experience for all our competitors. Thanks for all the help from you & your experts. We found it a valuable experience.”

“Thank you very much for your nice arrangement and preparations on GSC2019. Congratulations on another successful GSC Event. All competitors and experts were happy to have a useful experience for 2019 WSC Kazan.”

“Thank you – our competitors and experts had a good experience through GSC! See you in Kazan.”

“A big thanks! I am sure it will be a great help while preparing for Kazan.”

“Thank you again for your hospitality, our delegation was delighted. It was worth it! ”

“Overall this has been a great experience and we hope to join you again at GSC in years to come. Thanks Again for everything, you all have represented Australia with great aplomb.”

I want to give a huge shout out to Mr Neil Coulson – The Victorian Skills Commissioner who was our presenting partner for the event, the team at the Victorian TAFE Association, our venue partners Kangan Institute, Holmesglen Institute and RMIT University, our key event sponsors Master Builders Victoria and VETASSESS. We also had the most amazing support from our key industry partners and supporters.

We had an incredible team supporting the skill experts and competitors, including our Team leaders, Technical Delegate, Technical Delegate Assistants and of course the WorldSkills Australia staff, who all worked tirelessly behind the scenes.

The marketing reach for the event was nothing short of spectacular, reaching nearly 10mil viewers through print, broadcast and online channels, including national coverage during the Channel’s 7, 9 and 10 evening news and more than 11k views of the official farewell event live feed.

It’s forecast that more than $1mil of direct economic benefit was delivered to Melbourne as a result of hosting the Global Skills Challenge and some of the key stats are impressive…… 928 flights purchased and a combined 4.2mil kms travelled by competitors and officials, 142 coach transfers travelled 22,00 kms during the event. More than 2,200 hotel room nights booked and 8.500 meals served.

And finally, Congratulations to our 2019 Skillaroos. The 15 competitors, the International Experts and Officials who will now go onto represent Australia at what is best described as the Olympics for Skills. WorldSkills Australia is currently 10th on the WorldSkills International rankings, and our goal is to improve on this (my aspiration is a top 5 finish!)

Thank you again to everyone who took part in Global Skills Challenge and we look forward to seeing you all again at Global Skills Challenge 2021.

10/05/2019