The WorldSkills General Assembly tonight (Monday, August 10) granted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wish to host the 2019 competition.
The bid for Kazan, launched on the request of Mr Putin, was the third to be heard at the meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the eve of the 43rd WorldSkills opening ceremony.
A delegation from Belgium had been first up, hoping its bid for Charleroi would impress assembly members before a team from France had the same hopes with their bid for Paris.
However, members’ heads were turned by the third and final presentation, from the Russian delegation. Their bid will see WorldSkills go to Russia for the first time in its 70-year history in 2019 as the competition lands in the West Russian city of Kazan, 500 miles east of Moscow. It takes place in Abu Dhabi in 2017 while this year’s competition starts on August 12.
A WorldSkills spokesperson said: “Congratulations to Russia. Kazan has just been announced the host city of the WorldSkills competition in 2019.
“We are very excited to have WorldSkills Kazan 2019 taking place in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, one of the leading economic regions in the country and we are convinced that this event will continue our great succession of promoting skills to the world.”
The bid for Kazan, which hosted the two-month 2015 Fina (Fédération internationale de natation or International Swimming Federation) World Championships this summer and has a population of around 1.1m people, was announced in November 2013 after the WorldSkills International (WSI) board of directors met high-ranking Russian politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets.
“We spend a lot of meetings with representatives of employers to rethink our professional standards. That is why today’s meeting is so important for us, and I hope that our cooperation will help us to implement the tasks facing Russia” said Ms Golodets at the time.
“That is why on behalf of the President of Russia we have made the decision to submit bid to host WorldSkills Moscow 2019. We plan to file our application in July 2014.”
She added: “It is nice to know that Russia is not alone in their concerns to increase the quality of vocational education and that these same problems are being solved and worked on by other countries.
“I am sure that our goals are the same and our collaboration with WSI would be useful. And I hope that together we will make new steps in the development of professional competencies on a global level.”
Keep up with all the action before and during the 2015 competition in Sao Paulo with FE Week – on feweek.co.uk or on Twitter with the handle @FEWeek and the #GoWSTeamUK hashtag.
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