The winners of the WorldSkills Barbados 2018 Competition will be revealed at the Closing/Awards Ceremony on Friday.
Nearly 40 students, including four competitors and one reserve per skill area, went through to the finals of the fourth biennial WorldSkills Barbados Competition held from May 18 to 21.
The thirty-one competitors, representing Barbados Community College (BCC), Barbados Vocational Training Board (BVTB) and Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI), competed in one of eight skill areas: automobile technology, beauty therapy, car painting, cooking, fashion technology, graphic design technology, hairdressing and restaurant service.
Three private training institutions, Career Development Institute, Nikita’s School of Cosmetology and Caribbean Cosmetology Academy, also took part in the preliminaries which were held in February this year.
After the preliminaries, finalists underwent months of additional training both in their technical and soft skills, the latter of which comprised a Competitors Developmental Programme that was conducted by the Barbados Employers’ Confederation in collaboration with the TVET Council.
The competitors are vying for gold, silver and bronze medals in their respective skill areas as well as Medallions for Excellence which are awarded to competitors who do not medal, but have achieved the WorldSkills standards of excellence.
Competitors are also vying for a chance to represent Barbados at the WorldSkills Americas regional competition in October this year and the WorldSkills International competition which will be held in Kazan, Russia in 2019. This means that they have to achieve 75 per cent or more in the WorldSkills Barbados finals and 80 per cent or more in the Competitors Developmental Programme. (PR)
