By Nance Nais
KUCHING, Sept 6: The upcoming WorldSkills Malaysia Sarawak Competition (WSMS) 2019 aims to unearth skilled and talented Sarawakians to represent the state at national and international competitions.
Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong pointed out that the event will serve as a starting point in identifying Sarawak youths with good skills who can then go on to compete at higher levels such as the national-level WorldSkills Malaysia Youth (WSMB), Asean Skills Competition (ASC) and WorldSkills Competition (WSC).
“This skills competition will increase the competence and competitiveness among institutions, private sector and the industry. It gives opportunities to students from public skills training institutions (ILKA), private skills training institutions (ILKS), public and private universities in Sarawak to participate in WSMS,” he said.
“We encourage our youths to take the challenge to prove that Sarawak’s youths are also capable of making the country proud at the world level,” he addressed a press conference today.
Regarded as the ‘olympics of skills’ and organised under the Worldskills International, Manyin added that it was a global organisation of 76 nations dedicated to raise the profile and recognition of skilled people and highlight the significance of skills in achieving economic growth and personal success.
“We want to raise our technical and vocational standards in Sarawak and through this, we hope to attract more youths to pursue in this field. We also want to inspire our Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) trainees to pursue excellence in their field,” he pointed out.
The three-days event from Sept 10 to 12 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) is jointly organised by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research and Department of Skills Development (DSD) Sarawak under the Ministry of Human Resources.
There are 94 participants who have qualified themselves for the finals, competing in 15 categories, including IT software solution for business, web technology, IT network system administration, mechanical design CAD (computer-aided design) and others such as welding, electrical installation, brick-laying, painting and decorating, cooking, refrigeration and air-conditioning, automobile technology, fashion technology, beauty therapy, hairdressing, and restaurant service.
Events for the finals in all 14 categories will be held at BCCK, except welding which will be taking place at Centre for Technical Excellence in Jalan Santubong here for safety reasons.— DayakDaily
