Olympic-style Competition Promotes Skilled Trades

It’s been compared to the Olympics. But rather than sports, the 40th WorldSkills Competition showcases the world’s best and brightest young people skilled in the trades and technologies.

From September 1 to 7, more than 900 youth from 51 countries and regions have come together in Calgary to compete for medals in every category from carpentry to cooking, mobile robotics to landscape gardening, and auto-body repair and aircraft maintenance to web design.

The high-performance competition, which takes place every two years, seeks to inspire youth to pursue careers and excellence in the skilled trades and technologies at the same time addressing the shortage of skills faced by industries the world over.

“Projections on the emerging labour force of the next couple of decades are clear: If tradespeople work hard, embrace new technologies and stay current in their expertise, they will have long and rewarding careers,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the opening ceremonies on Tuesday.

Shaun Thorson is executive director of Skills/ Compétences Canada, a not-for-profit organization based in Gatineau, Quebec, says the traditional view of skilled trades is that the jobs are very manual and dirty and involve working with your hands.” He pointed out that, “working with your hands remains a strong element, but technology has definitely made a significant impact on the trades,”

They work with educators, employers, labour groups, and governments to promote careers in skilled trades.

“We have an aging population,” therefore, “In the next three to five years, we’ll see a lot of people leaving the workforce as a result of retirement, so we need to make sure we have adequate numbers of people to replace them.

“One avenue to do that is to make sure our young people are aware of the occupations that exist, and how they can get involved through apprenticeship programs or their technical colleges, polytechnic institutes, and community colleges.”

There are more than 200 skilled trade careers available in Canada in six categories:

• Transportation and Logistics: Aircraft maintenance, auto body repair, automobile technology
• Construction and Building Technology: refrigeration, carpentry, plumbing and heating, and industrial control
• Manufacturing and Engineering Technology: mechanical and engineer design, mobile robotics, electronics and sheet metal technology
• Information and Communications Technology: web designer, IT/PC network support, offset printing
• Creative Arts and Fashion: graphic design technology, floristry, fashion technology
• Social and Personal Services: hairdressing, confectioner/pastry cook

–Skills Canada

The organizers noted that by 2020, a labour shortage of nearly one million will be faced by Canada.

Experts from the participating countries closely collaborated to develop the test projects, which are “all very practical and very hands on” and represent the standards, regulations, and best practices that exist worldwide, said Mr. Thorson.

Categories of competition include construction and building, transportation and logistics, information and communication technology, manufacturing and engineering, creative arts and fashion, and social and personal services.

“That’s our goal—to try to present as many of those as possible so [youth] are as informed as possible when they are looking at making that all-important career decision,” Thorson notes.

For most events, competitor ages range from 17 to 23, except for those competing in aircraft maintenance and the manufacturing team challenge, who may be up to 25.

All the competitions are open to the public with free admission. This year there is a new hands-on interactive area called Skills City which invites visitors to try out a skill or a trade for themselves.

The international event aims to generate attention on the longstanding issue of “worker mobility, to make it easier for workers to move from one region of the country to another,” he said.

The first competition was held in 1950 in Madrid, Spain.

Montreal Olympic Stadium in Canada hosted WorldSkills Competition in 1999.

London, U.K., will host in 2011.

Leipzig, Germany, has won the vote to host the 42nd WorldSkills Competition in 2013.

The nearly 150,000 visitors, including 50,000 students, are estimated to generate more than $80 million due to the competition at the Calgary Stampede Park.