Mark Callaghan’s Welcome

Dear WorldSkills Supporter,

The final countdown to the 41st WorldSkills Competition in London is well and truly on and this, our last Skill News prior to the departure of the 2011 Team Australia Skillaroos will focus on final preparations and what you can expect from the competition in London.

While the Skillaroos and their International Experts are busily completing their training, the National office has been busy putting in place plans to ensure that everyone will be able to share the journey of our skill champions as they take on the world. From the Official Farewell Function on the 27th of September to their visit to Villers-Bretonneux in France and from their One School One Country visit in London to all the action of the competition itself, including all the results, WorldSkills Australia will bring the action into your homes, offices, schools, etc. via our website, Facebook , Twitter and Flickr. In addition, you will be able to leave messages of support for all Skillaroos via Facebook. Further information will be provided in this edition of SkillNews.

Many supporters are making the trip to London and I am sure they will be a welcome sight for all Skillaroos. For all of you who are unable to make it to London, we hope we can capture and convey all the emotion and excitement that surrounds what will be the biggest showcase of skills excellence ever seen.

It is hard to believe that 10 months have passed since Team Australia was announced and that in only three weeks time the Skillaroos will be stepping foot on a plane bound for London, via France.

Read on to find out what has been happening in the lead up to the 41st WorldSkills International Competition, enjoy our special London edition!

WorldSkills Australia is not only about showcasing Australian skills and trying to improve our ranking of 5th in the world, it is also about opening up opportunities for our Skillaroos and providing them with the experience of a lifetime.

This is why Team Australia will be participating in a range of activities in addition to the international competition, including:

• A visit to Villers Bretenoux and tour of the Australian war graves and Victoria School in France
• Afternoon tea at the French embassy in Paris
• One School One Country Program
• Excursion to visit to iconic landmarks in London
• Afternoon tea with Australian embassy in London

Skillaroos visit Villers-Bretennoux 

For the first time ever, WorldSkills Australia will be taking the Team Australia Skillaroos to the town of Villers-Bretonneux, where they will be able stand on the ground where heroic Australian soldiers helped to save the small French town from the Germans during World War 1. Learn more about Villers-Bretonneux here.

2009 Skillaroo Nigel Croke, at the One School One Country program in Calgary, Canada.

The One School One Country initiative aims to motivate and encourage primary school teaching staff and management to proactively engage pupils in learning about the skills and careers of other countries/regions.

Participating schools will provide a programme of cultural activities which is geared towards the day when the primary school students get to meet and welcome the Team Australia Skillaroos to the UK and their particular school in October 2011.

See images of the One School One Country program in Calgary Canada for the 2009 Team Australia Skillaroos.

If you have Foxtel, make sure you tune into the Perrett Report on Sky News Business on Tuesday 20th September, between 6:00-7:00pm, to watch a live interview between Janine Perrett and Restaurant Service Skillaroo Kate Crocker.

The interview will be repeated later that night on Sky News.

2011 Skillaroo, Alexis Scott. Image courtesy of Donnybrook Bridgeton Mail.

With such a short period of time until take-off, media interest in our Team Australia Skillaroos is ramping up; follow the links below to read some of the impressive articles:

• Kate Crocker
• Tamika Mackrell
• Alexis Scott
• Kye Szeniak

Also bubbling away in the background are some very exciting media stories, stay tuned on our website and social media sites to stay abreast of all that is happening WorldSkills.

WorldSkills Australia has been overwhelmed by the commendable training reports filtering back to the organisation from both the Skillaroos and their experts.

There have been stories of competitors travelling for hours on their weekends to fit in extra training, some travelling overseas for simulated competitions and an unbelievable amount time being spent preparing for the competition whilst juggling full time jobs.

Team Australia have put their personal and professional lives on hold in an attempt to bring to London the most competitive team yet.

Some of the training highlights which have happened in the last month include Guy Brooks travelling to China for a simulated competition and 'IT Camp'.

Our Guy goes to China

Guy Brooks our Skillaroo Welder and his expert Paul Condran have just returned from a training expedition which they attended in Beijing, China.The pair flew to China to participate in a competition which simulated the 22 hour project Guy will be completing at the 41st WorldSkills International Competition.

The aim of the exercise was to allow the Chinese contingent to see the format of the International Competition. China became a WorldSkills International member country in 2010, so the international competition this year will be the first the world's most populous nation competes in.

The opportunity to travel to China proved a valuable experience for Guy who not only got a chance to practice his test project and consumables, but also to meet the two Chinese competitors.

Paul said that his biggest highlight from the trip was seeing: "The improvement in Guy's results since the last hit out at the Global Skills Challenge", as well as the visit to, "The Great Wall of China on our final day in Beijing and that evening a visit to the Birds Nest and swimming complex at the Beijing National Stadium (home of the 2008 Beijing Olympics)"

Paul would also like to thank WorldSkills China who hosted the two for their stay, he said: "We couldn't have been looked after any better by our hosts; they even treated us to Peking duck feast in a restaurant over 400 years old."

Image of the Hunter Valley, courtesy of Blake Cannell.

IT Camp in the Hunter Valley

On the weekend of 19-21st of August the IT section of Team Australia headed to Stonehurst Cedar Creek Cottages in the Hunter Valley for ‘IT Camp’, in a final bid to get one more solid training session in prior to departure.

Skillaroos; Blake Cannell, Andrew Seeley and Nick Sharp, accompanied by experts Sarah Jones, Jarrad Langdon and trainer Michael Kirkwood-Smith headed to the picturesque NSW region to complete a three day simulated competition challenge.

Travelling to the Hunter Valley to sit in front of a computer seems a little wasteful, so the Skillaroos took advantage of the fresh air and beautiful surroundings by fitting in a morning run each day, cooking their own breakfasts and heading out for a chicken schnitzel dinner treat.

Andrew Seeley expressed the benefits of the weekend in his blog, saying: “The weekend was used to refine our skills and sort out final preparations before London. I went through some questions on previous competitions. This was quite useful to find several ways to solve one problem.”

Read Andrew’s Blog of Progress here.

Farewell Function for the
2009 Skillaroos.

The invitations have gone out and seats are filling up quickly for the official Skillaroo send-off.

The event will mark the first time that all of the Skillaroos will stand together as a team in their official Team Australia uniforms as well as the being the last night the competitors are in the country before they begin their journey to London.

Speaking at the event will be some very special guests including some of the 2009 medal winning Skillaroos, who will offer up their insights into what our 2011 team should expect from the international competition.

If you haven’t yet sent your RSVP, please make sure you do so as soon as possible to secure your seat at the event.

Please send your RSVP’s via email to info@worldskills.org.au or phone the national office on (03) 9249 1000.

Skillaroos (L-R): Jake Hall, Natalee Hibbins. Picture courtesy of perthnow.

On Wednesday August 31st, The Sunday Times hosted a farewell cocktail party for WA based Skillaroos, Jake Hall, Alexis Scott and Natalee Hibbins at their Headquarters in Perth.

Jason Scott, Managing Director wished the Skillaroos the best of luck in their quest for Gold at the 41st International WorldSkills Competition in London later this year.

The event was attended by close friends and family, as well as Senator the Hon Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations.

WorldSkills Australia would like to thank our media partner, News Limited & Career One for supporting the farewell.

Read the article about the event here.

View photos taken of the farewell.

Pictured (L-R): Peter Roberts , Institute Director, TAFE NSW South Western Sydney Institute, Skillaroos: Blake Cannell, Ben Cooper, Andrew Seeley, Kye Szeniak, Gustavo Asciutto and Susan Hartigan , Institute Director, TAFE NSW Western Sydney Institute.

Sydney West Region Skillaroos were farewelled at a function at Mount Druitt TAFE on the 30th August.

The event was hosted by Mount Druitt TAFE College Director, Sharron Kerr and was held in the new ‘Create’ training restaurant with student volunteers staffing the event.

Skillaroos; Ben Cooper, Andrew Seeley, Blake Cannell, Gustavo Asciutto and Kye Szeniak were farewelled with an address by Western Sydney Institute director Susan Hartigan, South Western Sydney Institute director Peter Roberts and Sydney West Regional Chair Greg Fahey.

The event was attended by the WorldSkills Australia Sydney West regional committee members, trainers, employers, family and friends.

On Thursday 16 September News Limited will be hosting a farewell function for Queensland Skillaroos; Russell Routledge, Rhaman Donovan and Liam Janetski.

Jenny Harris, Managing Director of News Limited will be speaking at the event alongside Employment, Skills and Mining Minister Stirling Hinchliffe and WorldSkills Australia CEO, Mark Callaghan.

WorldSkills Australia would like to thank our media partner, News Limited & Career One for supporting the farewell.

Stay tuned on our social media sites for photos of this event.

2011 Team Australia Skillaroos.

Well look no further, share your support on the appropriately titled ‘Support the Skillaroos’ page which has just been created on facebook.

All you need to do is like the page at the link below and then you can leave your own well wishes and congratulatory comments for the Skillaroos.

For those of you who are not subscribed to Facebook, you too can leave your supportive comments via email. These comments will be posted by the WSA staff on your behalf to the facebook page.

Let’s all band together and show the Skillaroos just how proud we are of all of the work they have put in to get to where they are.

Let them know you are cheering them on as they set to embark on their biggest career challenge to date.

Live feeds, interviews, images, videos, blogs and stories will be appearing everyday on the website and WorldSkills Australia social media sites.

2009 BBM Team.

The Skillaroos are not the only skilled apprentices and trainees London bound this month.

The BBM team are also travelling to the UK for their two week leadership challenge, which coincides with the International Competition.

This will mean that the very lucky Skillaroos are going to have a strong Australian cheer squad at the opening ceremony; the 16 member BBM team will be joining over 120 Australians who will be in London to support the Skillaroos.

Learn more about the BBM program here.

WorldSkills Australia CEO, Mark Callaghan, speaking at the MSA Conference. Image courtesy of the MSA website.

Manufacturing Skills Australia (MSA), held a conference themed ‘Productivity & participation, addressing the balance’ on Wednesday 24 August in Melbourne.

The conference was a fantastic success, which offered some very insightful tips into the sustainable future of the industry as well as presenting some interesting case studies.

Asked to speak at the conference was WorldSkills Australia CEO, Mark Callaghan, who provided an overview about the organisation. You can watch Mark’s speech here.

Mark then introduced ex-competitor in Sheet Metal Work and bronze medallist at the WorldSkills International Competition in Calgary, Daniel Karanges, who spoke a few words about his time as a Skillaroo. Listen to what Daniel had to say here.

You can learn more about the conference and watch the case studies here.

This newsletter is about the WorldSkills community, so we want news from the WorldSkills Australia community. If you would like to spread your news across Australia contact: Simone Gioia (sgioia@worldskills.org.au) at the National Office.