Olga Golodets: Seventy Russian regions have already joined the WorldSkills Russia movement

On March 10, speaking at a  meeting with Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov and WSI Board Russian Government Deputy Chairman Olga Golodets said that signing the Memorandum of Understanding concerning holding the WorldSkills International Professional Skills Competitions in Kazan in 2016 was a serious step.

WSI President Simon Bartley, Director of the Department of State Policy in the sphere of Personnel Training and Additional Professional Training of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Nataliya Zolotareva, Director General of WorldSkills Russia Union Robert Urazov, Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin and others took part in the meeting.

Opening the meeting Golodets said that Russia joined the WorldSkills International movement in 2012 at the General Assembly in South Korea. “For us, joining WorldSkills has become a tool of developing the working personnel training system,” she noted.

In 2015, Russia won the bid to host the WorldSkills championship in 2019.

“We have got down to fulfilling the obligations we assumed. An organising committee has been set up. Two sessions have been held, an action plan for the main events has been approved. Today we have made a serious step be signing the Memorandum. This allows us to move on,” she said.

She continued that 70 Russian  regions have joined the movement. “Regional championships are being held, within which over 3.5 thousand students will undergo special selection rounds to be included in Russia’s extended vocational skills team,” she said.

Minnikhanov in his turn noted that after Russia’s joining the WorldSkills movement, Tatarstan is the leader in the respective ranking of regions. “We are introducing the WorldSkills standards in the programmes of training young employees at industrial enterprises,” he said.

He reminded that Kazan twice hosted the WorldSkills national finals, as well as the first Junior Skills championship.

“Nowadays, Tatarstan has a complete infrastructure, capabilities and resources, as well as substantial federal support, to organise and hold the world championship in 2019 up to a high standard,” Minnikhanov stressed.

Speaking about the 2019 event, WSI President Simon Bartley assumed teams from 65-70 countries would participate. “The competitions will be approximately held in 50 nominations. Currently, 70 countries are members of the WorldSkills movement, by 2019 they will be 80 to 85. Since about 10 will not be able to participate for various reasons, 65-70 countries are safe to be predicted as participants,” Simon Bartley told reporters.