Tayla calls for more students to join WorldSkills
WorldSkills promotes the benefits of and need for skilled professionals through grass-roots community projects, skill competitions and knowledge exchange.
WESTVILLE resident, Tayla Schou (23), is urging the youth to join WorldSkills, a global hub for skills excellence and development.
Through international cooperation and development between industry, government, organisations and institutions, WorldSkills promotes the benefits of and need for skilled professionals through grassroots community projects, skill competitions and knowledge exchange.
According to Tayla, WorldSkills shows how important skills education and training is for youth, industries and society by challenging young professionals around the world to become the best in the skill of their choice.
Tayla was introduced to the WorldSkills programme by her boss, the owner of Fusions School of Cooking in Westville. She joined the programme and competed in the WorldSkills national competition SA in Cape Town from 26 to 31 January 2015, where she won the cooking category. She was then selected to compete internationally in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 8 to 14 August 2015. Tayla was the only South African, among 40 other chefs across the globe. She joined a team of 18 other South Africans who competed in this international event.
“It was an amazing opportunity to participate internationally. I had Sweden on my right and Russia on my left. After eight hours of cooking for three days, it was awesome to view the final arrangements of different types of culinary skills from different parts of the world,” said Tayla.
She said it was a great opportunity for skilled people and takes a lot of diligence and maturity but a great way to represent your country, other than being academically or technically-inclined.
In February this year, Tayla was asked to join the WorldSkills Champions Trust, an initiative developed by champions as part of the WorldSkills Forum 2014 in Lucerne, Switzerland. The WSCT consists of a small group of champions (previous competitors) working together to help bridge the gap between champions and WorldSkills beyond the competition. Tayla was selected to be the representative for Africa. She is among a group of nine people who will work to help raise levels of engagement among WorldSkills champions and promote active involvement in WorldSkills and WorldSkills Foundation projects, initiatives and activities. These nine representatives will be doing this voluntarily while holding down permanent positions in their respective fields.
“Today, WorldSkills represents more than 45 skills in 72 member countries and regions, all working together with youth, educators and industries to help prepare the workforce and talent of today for the jobs of the future. WorldSkills is not just a competition, it is a movement,” said Tayla.
She said this year’s regional competition will be held at the Durban ICC soon and is encouraging students to speak to their tertiary institutions to learn more about this programme. Alternatively, you can visit www.worldskills.org or www.worldskillssa,org.
