The President of France has officially opened this year’s WorldSkills competition at a lavish opening ceremony earlier this evening.
Emmanuel Macron appeared at the LDLC Arena outside Lyon today to give his well wishes to the 1,500 competitors from across the globe and declared the event officially open.
From tomorrow, Team UK will compete alongside 1,400 peers from 68 others in 27 skills across four long days.
Chris Humphries, WorldSkills president and former director of City & Guilds and founding CEO of UK Commission for Employment & Skills (UKCES), stressed the need for competitors to pay their skills forward.
“It is clear that the voices and actions of our youth are needed now more than ever to tackle the challenges facing the world, from the climate crisis to unequal access to education, from gender inequities to rapid advancements in technology,” he said.
The audience was also treated to performances from an AI-enabled singer and dancers.
Max Roche, president of WorldSkills Lyon 2024, said organisers had been hard at work since it won the bid in 2021.
He told competitors: “you can be proud to be an inspiration to the thousands of visitors who’ll be watching you over the next 4 days.”
Roche also thanked President Macron for supporting one of the largest events that France has hosted this year.
“2024 has been a historic year for France, with events like the Olympic games, Paralympic games and the reopening of Notre Dame. Without skills, those historic events would not be possible.”
Competitors and experts were then asked to acknowledge the WorldSkills oath, which promises to compete and officiate “fairly” by respecting the code of ethics and conduct, the competition rules, and the WorldSkills values.
The competitor’s oath is as follows: “In the name of all competitors, I promise to compete fairly, respecting and abiding by the code of ethics and conduct, the competition rules, and the WorldSkills values – all in the true spirit of WorldSkills.”
One country, one school
Before the opening ceremony, Team UK visited Lycée professionnel hôtelier les Bruyères, a gastronomy school on the outskirts of Lyon.
The region of Lyon is home to some of France’s historically renowned chefs, such as Paul Bocuse, who was deemed the “father of gastronomy” and the “first ambassador of Lyon” whilst he was alive. Born in north Lyon in 1926, he was reportedly the inspiration behind the character of Auguste Gusteau in Pixar’s 2007 film Ratatouille. He died in 2018.
The visit was part of WorldSkills’ one school one country programme, established in 2007 by WorldSkills Shizuoka which promotes cultural exchange between international competitors and students in the host city.
WorldSkills Lyon selected more than 5,000 students from 52 schools across Lyon and the surrounding areas as part of its commitment to promote vocational and training needs of the Metropolis of Lyon.
Lycée professionnel hôtelier les Bruyères specialises in food, hotel and restaurant service professions.
Team UK were joined by the Palestinian delegation on the excursion. The competitors played games with the culinary and restaurant students before sampling the school restaurant’s food. The team had signed a flag beforehand and presented it to students at lunch.
Skills Palestine Team 2024 have one competitor in electrical installation, Mahdy Abusarhan. Earlier this summer, they had a 10-day training session with the Malaysian team.
Abusarhan was supposed to train in Belgium but according to his expert and team leader, it wasn’t possible due to security reasons.
Palestinian expert Khalil Adi added that Abusarhan was confident but slightly nervous ahead of the opening ceremony.
Most competitors told FE Week they were ready to start the competition tomorrow. Some have long days of multiple tasks ahead of them, such as the cyber security duo Max Clarke and Arron Luker, who have been advised to take packed lunches with them as they wouldn’t be allowed to exit their workshops at the venue.
The competition properly starts tomorrow so stay on top of the latest by following @feweek on Twitter for live updates. You can tweet your support by using the hashtag #TeamUK.
FE Week is the media partner of WorldSkills UK and Team UK.
