What more of a passionate demonstration to promote our activity than the WorldSkills Competition which were recently held in Calgary, Canada. Launched in 1950 by Worldskills, this competition brings together more than 50,000 young people from 51 countries including France, every 2 years, searching for professional excellence in their own field of work. COFOM (Organisational Committee for the Skills Competition) ensures the representation of Worldskills in France.
Professional branches, learning centres, training bodies and regions are all very much involved in this worldwide competition. For the time being, the events focus on 40 professions ranging from masonry work to gardening to web design and other new, service-based jobs. This year, 6,000 youngsters organised into national teams participated in this competition.
France won 7 medals: 3 Gold and 4 Bronze. Spain and the UK were also both very much involved in this competition with the former competing in 15 fields (such as car body repair work, webdesign, hairdressing and woodwork) and the latter, taking part in 24 areas, walking away with 3 Gold medals in painting and decorating, electricity installation and cooking, along with 6 Bronze medals.
This competition also carries with it a double virtue: it puts training procedures to the test in competing fields of work and also sets up sharing and training posts at all stages of selection.
They further contribute with a worldwide social and professional recognition to promote work and professions. Recognising a profession and bringing forward the best from those who exercise it is to give it a sufficient amount of vividness to encourage others to perhaps join such a profession.
Armel Le Compagnon, President of the Training Commission at the FFB (French Building Federation), as quoted by Les Echos, 2nd October, 2009, said “The involvement of professional branches is reflected on the motivation of young people.
When a young employee makes it into the final, it is an internal motivational factor which gives external value to the business and allows it to widen its market. The whole profession benefits too. We have made a tremendous effort to promote our professions and the WorldSkills Competition is part of this effort. Today, our CFS's (Training Centres) are full and we are having to recruit more of these young people that we need”.
This competition ensures that operational knowledge is promoted across the world. The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephan Harper, made mention to this in his speech: “This competition is a way to show off skills, talents and the ingenuity necessary for our economies”.
They have yet another credit which is that of closing the gap between manual and intellectual work. Today, and more-so tomorrow, work requires the use of one's head, hands and body.
All tomorrow's professions subject to new disciplines, from the London 2011 WorldSkills Competition to Leipzig in 2013 – pending those of Paris – notably those which appear in the Green Economy, biotechnologies or intelligent networks – will simultaneously require mental and physical skills.
Let us welcome new challenges but first, let us allow Jérémy Lévêque, Gold Medal winner for electricity installation, to have the last word which most appropriately sums up our profession: “I just continue learning, that's what interests me the most”.