General Assembly will open doors for New Zealand

3 October 2023

Carl Rankin, GM for WorldSkills New Zealand has returned from the WorldSkills General Assembly 2023 this week excited by the opportunities and benefits that our connection with the International vocational education and training (VET) community can bring to New Zealand VET.

Carl says the connections formed will open doors for New Zealand VET to link more seamlessly with the international VET community and will inform how WorldSkills New Zealand amplifies its own integration strategy.

The week-long gathering held in Dublin, Ireland aimed to bring together the member network to drive better understanding of the challenges facing vocational education systems, to plan, widen reach, as well as increase impact of the activities of the global WorldSkills movement.

Hosted by WorldSkills Ireland and the Irish Ministry of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the General Assembly brought together member countries and regions. This included representatives from the Champions Trust (past competitors and promoters of young voices in the WorldSkills moment) and the Expert Faculty (Skill experts, trainers and assessors of excellence).

Carl says “It was great to meet in person with so many members, all of whom are keen to share their ideas and experiences on how to contribute to better VET outcomes.”
“Like New Zealand, in the last five years many countries have undergone major reform to their VET and TVET systems. Similarly, many members consider the international competition as the catalyst to creating the benefits and value to their VET and TVET systems.”

Four large projects featured at the General Assembly are standouts for the New Zealand GM:

• The OECD Pisa for VET project strengthening the skills systems of European nations by developing, piloting, and implementing an internationally standardised assessment of outcomes of initial VET programmes.
• Skills for Africa, a programme focussed on making marked shifts in the perceptions of VET and driving innovation for skills development on the continent.
• Swiss Mission Future helping students discover, explore, and nurture their strengths.
• UK’s Centre for Vocational Excellence, a workforce development programme and innovation space equipping leaders and teaching practitioners with knowledge and skills to raise the quality and standards of Technical and Vocational Learning within their provision.

The WorldSkills Ireland Conference 2023 ran alongside the General Assembly under the broad banner of Transforming skills systems for Industry 5.0 Mega-trends, best practices, international recommendations, and youth perspectives were investigated to better integrate inclusion, digital, green transition and, in turn, to inform the wider WorldSkills community, policymakers, VET providers, and industry on the future of skill development.