The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council (TVETC) has announced the Barbados team that will compete at the 47th WorldSkills Competition, WorldSkills Lyon 2024, which will take place from September 10 to 15, in Lyon, France.
The announcement was made today by Technical Delegate for the WorldSkills Lyon team, Dario Walcott, at the office of TVETC, Hastings House West, Balmoral Gap, Hastings, Christ Church.
Team Barbados will see Sarah Gilkes-Daniel at the helm as team leader, with the following competitors in their various disciplines: Nathan Daniel – Automobile Technology; Hollyann Bayley – Car Painting; Moriah Hill – Cooking; and Saida Shepherd-Jones – Restaurant Service.
Each competitor will be accompanied by an expert in each area: Wayne Maycock (Automobile Technology), Negas Alleyne-Browne (Car Painting), Chef Peter Edey (Cooking) and Roderick Prescod (Restaurant Service).
Acting Executive Director of the TVETC, Wendy McClean, stated that visitors to the WorldSkills Lyon competition will have a chance to access both high-level discussions and thought leadership, around skills via the WorldSkills conference, as well as the opportunity to see skills excellence in action.
Ms. McClean expressed gratitude to the WorldSkills member countries network, which provided opportunities for the Barbadian competitors to gain access to high-level training, as well as international competition experience.
She said the competitors underwent a series of training activities and assessments as part of their preparation and selection for the competition.
“The training schedule also included the opportunity for competitors to practise their skills and participate in many competitions overseas as a result of invitations from other WorldSkills member countries, and for this we are grateful. This has helped to provide the squad with much needed competition experience, which is expected to help psychologically prepare them for the WorldSkills beyond 2024,” she stated.
According to Ms. McClean, those competition opportunities included an invitation from WorldSkills China to participate in the second Belt and Road International Skills competition, which was held in China in June 2024; the 2024 Skills Canada Automotive Skills Invitational and the Canadian Status Skills Painting Global Challenge, both held in July, and the recently concluded Skills Canada Cooking and Training competition in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Competitors have also been undergoing high performance training locally, with Dr. Janelle Chase-Mayers and her team at Re-Engineering Well-Being Consultancy, which included mental skills training and physical training.
The WorldSkills Competition, the largest international skills competition, is organised every two years under the aegis of WorldSkills International.
WorldSkills Lyon 2024 will see 1,500 competitors coming from 65 countries and regions competing in 64 skills to demonstrate their competence and mastery. Barbados became a WorldSkills member in 2011.