The world’s largest professional skills competition, WorldSkills, will be held in Russia in 2019 for the first time in its 65-year history, the head of the republic of Tatarstan said in a statement Tuesday.
Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, was picked over Paris and Belgium’s Charleroi by an international jury of 57 countries in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday.
The WorldSkills competition is held every two years. The competitors, aged between 18 and 23, demonstrate their excellence in a wide range of skills, including cooking, hairdressing, painting, design, carpentry and information technologies.
The competition is organized by WorldSkills international, a non-profit association aimed at raising the value and standards of professional training and skills worldwide.
The association currently comprises 72 member countries. Russia joined WorldSkills International in 2012.
In 2013 Russia took part in the WorldSkills competition for the first time in the German city of Leipzig and shared the last place — 41 — with Chile, Estonia, Iceland, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The decision to hold the competition in Kazan is recognition of Tatarstan’s capital as a highly developed city that has experience in hosting international events and a professional team and administration that is interested in success, Tatarstan’s First Deputy Education and Science Minister Andrei Pominov told The Moscow Times on Tuesday.
Kazan has a successful record of hosting national and world competitions. In 2013, the World University Games were held in Kazan. Several days ago, the World Aquatics Championship came to a close there. Kazan is also one of the 11 cities due to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018.
Russia is now actively increasing its participation in the WorldSkills movement as it helps to train professional workers to international standards, Pominov said.
“Our level in 2013 cannot be compared to today’s level,” Pominov said, adding that specialized training has increased and the modernization of equipment is ongoing.
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