New Zealand Gains a Seat on the WorldSkills Champions Trust

22 Dec 2017

WorldSkills New Zealand (WSNZ) Past Competitor and 2016-2017 Team Leader Assistant, Amelia Addis, has been officially selected to be one of the Representatives of the WorldSkills Champions Trust (WSCT)!

Following WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, the WSCT had 42 applications for seven open positions – a lot were definitely interested to help Competitors stay involved and be global ambassadors for WorldSkills.
The new representatives are:

1. Representative Asia: Pearl So Ka Yu, Hong Kong, China
2. Representing Africa: Tjihimise “Bruno” Karaerua, Namibia
3. Representing Americas: Kieron Kolhmann, US
4. Representing Americas: Giovanny Sanchez, Colombia
5. Representing ASEAN/Oceania: Amelia Addis, New Zealand
6. Representing Europe: Caroline Söderqvist, Sweden
7. Representing Europe: Jacqueline Tanzer, Austria

Amelia, who was part of the NZ Skills Team that participated in WorldSkills Sao Paulo 2015 for the floristry skill, shares her experience as a Competitor: “For me, being a WorldSkills Competitor was appealing for a lot of reasons – the opportunity to travel with my work and see the way my international counterparts worked was really exciting. I knew that going through the training process would mean I could improve my skills quickly and also learn new techniques that I may not get the chance to otherwise.”

On WorldSkills, she says, “I remember thinking that the best thing I had learned about my trade through WorldSkills was how limitless my field really was and the all the different directions I could take. Before doing WorldSkills, I loved flowers and working with them but I still thought of my job as just that – a job. After competing, I came to realise that I could build a career around floristry and that through the training I had all the skills required to do so.”

“I also backed myself more after the experience. After competing, my confidence in my work grew astronomically, which pushed me to think about the direction I wanted my career to take and that meant a change. Within the year, I had a job working for one of Auckland top wedding and event florists as a senior florist, managing staff, controlling the flower buying and helping to design some really amazing events.”

WorldSkills has certainly made a great impact on Amelia. So much so that she immediately became one of WSNZ’s active volunteers. “This hugely noticeable change in my motivation, drive and capability to succeed has been the main reason I have returned to Worldskills as a volunteer. I believe that WorldSkills for young people is really one of the best personal development activities that they could be involved with.”

WSNZ fully supported Amelia’s application to the WSCT and is quite proud of her making the final cut.

About the Champions Trust
The WorldSkills Champions Trust (WSCT) is a group of nine Champions working together to help bridge the gap between Champions and WorldSkills beyond the Competition.

The initiative was developed by Past Competitors for fellow Competitors at the WorldSkills Champions Forum 2014 in Lucerne, Switzerland. Their idea was to establish an advisory group to works closely throughout the year with WorldSkills.

This group works to help raise levels of engagement amongst WorldSkills Champions and promote active involvement in WorldSkills and WorldSkills Foundation projects, initiatives and activities.