-  WorldSkills Competition  -

The first WorldSkills Competition took place in Madrid in 1950 as a forum for young people to demonstrate their vocational skills and achieve world-class standards of competence.

WorldSkills is the largest skills competition in the world and takes place biennially. The last competition was held in 2005 in Helsinki, Finland where almost 700 competitors took part in the event.

Competitors are young people aged between 18 and 22 and come from the 40 different member nations. They compete over four days in skills ranging from Beauty Therapy to Restaurant Service, Bricklaying to Autobody Repair.

In addition to the competition, WorldSkills provides an opportunity for sharing leading edge thinking about training.

The next World Skills Competition takes place in Japan 2007.