We will do our best to stage one of the best WorldSkills competitions ever, Tatarstan’s sport minister says

Project planning meetings featuring WorldSkills International Secretariat and members of the WorldSkills Kazan 2019 Organising Committee – WorldSkills Russia and Directorate for Sports and Social Projects – kicked off today, December 4, in Kazan.

This time projects planning meetings will address results of the OC’s visit to WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 as part of the Observer Programme. After hearing out the audience’s impression of WSAD2017 at the beginning of the plenary session, CEO of WorldSkills International, David Hoey, said: “WorldSkills is a unique event. There are many competitions going on throughout the world but none of them resembles the WorldSkills Competition.”

Those who attended the plenary session discussed strengths and weaknesses of their counterparts’ work in Abu Dhabi. In particular, Tatarstan Sport Minister, Vladimir Leonov, mentioned that the Tatarstan delegation was especially impressed with WSAD2017's Visitor Programme and is now going to borrow it from their Emirati collegues and to implement it in Kazan together with WorldSkills Russia. This programme will enable students of high schools, colleges and universities to get firsthand experience of the Competition.

“We also closely examined transportation and logistics operations. As a result, we’ve decided to increase the number of parking lots at the Kazan Expo WorldSkills Arena and to change the venue’s navigation. This visit helped us to finalise our plans,” said Vladimir Leonov. “We have a well-coordinated team; together we will do our best to stage one of the best WorldSkills Competitions ever,” the Minister concluded.

In his welcoming speech, Robert Urazov, Director General of WorldSkills Russia, said: “Such meetings are the perfect opportunity to adopt the best practices of WSI’s priceless experience and also to introduce our own know-how. In 2019, Russia will present to the global community Future Skills, a section dedicated to jobs of the future, that will be located on a 10,000-square-metre area.”

Tomorrow will kick off a series of debriefing meetings with the WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 team that will run for four days and see its participants discuss the experience of previous WorldSkills Competitions.

Earlier this year, in August, the WorldSkills International Secretariat already paid an inspection visit to the Tatarstan capital and participated in project planning meetings for WorldSkills Kazan 2019. The next visit of WorldSkills International to Kazan is scheduled for April next year.