This month’s national WorldSkills championships was held at satellite sites across Australia following multiple outbreaks of COVID-19 in the eastern states.
This month’s national WorldSkills championships was held at satellite sites across Australia following multiple outbreaks of COVID-19 in the eastern states.
Originally scheduled for the Perth Convention Centre in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, WorldSkills will feature more than 450 registered competitors, with individual winners representing Australia at the Worldskills international competition in Shanghai next year.
Speaking to Business News ahead of the event, Worldskills Australia chief executive Trevor Schwenke compared the championships to an Olympic Games for workers.
“From a skills point of view, we need to continue to promote skills and skills excellence across Australia, and we need to also not just showcase it but benchmark it domestically,” Mr Schwenke said.
“Internationally, when we go overseas to test our skills against the rest of the world just to see how well we are going with our skills training and development in Australia … I think it’s really important we do that.”
The WorldSkills national championship are being held at a time many businesses in Western Australia are expressing concern of growing skill shortages.
Last month, Premier Mark McGowan, along with most state government ministers, participated in a Skills Summit with industry, union, and other stakeholders to work on potential solutions.
Mr McGowan and Education Minister Sue Ellery have since flagged bringing forward apprenticeships for mature-aged students, attracting up to 5,000 onshore skilled migrants from interstate, and developing a smooth pipeline of infrastructure work.
Having worked with several TAFEs and other education providers prior to joining WorldSkills in 2019, Mr Schwenke said there was value in promoting skills across all industries, rather than trying to focus on addressing smaller fields where skills shortages may be more acutely present.
“What we’re starting to do is looking at the new skills coming onboard internationally, and how we actually start to promote those from a national point of view,” he said.
