Competition Preparation Week concludes with a clear roadmap to WorldSkills Lyon 2024

Competition Preparation Week (CPW) took place from 29 January to 2 February, in Lyon, bringing together Skill Management Teams, Members, Global Partners, the Competition Organizer, and WorldSkills International to coordinate and plan in detail for the Competition.

Some of the objectives of CPW were updating Members on the progress of the skill competitions and on the continued improvements in each of them. This included looking at ways to make skills competitions more efficient and sustainable and gazing at their potential evolution in the future.

“By the end of this week, Skill Competition Managers, Workshop Managers, Workshop Manager Assistants, and Workshop Sector Managers had advanced the Infrastructure Lists in terms of materials and equipment, identifying sponsors for each item. Workshop layouts are now close to being finalised,” said Jane Stokie, Director of Skills Competitions at WorldSkills International.

CPW was also an opportunity to progress the development of quality assessment and understanding of WorldSkills Occupational Standards.

The Sponsors Forum, which took place during the second day of Competition Preparation Week, briefed WorldSkills Global Partners and Event Sponsors for WorldSkills Lyon 2024 on different parts of the Competition relevant to them including a networking event that was organized at the Groupama Stadium, where the WorldSkills Lyon 2024 Closing Ceremony will take place.

“Global Partners and Event Sponsors appreciated the in-depth information provided by all teams of WorldSkills Lyon 2024 – from information on the venue to marketing and communications resources made available to them. There were excellent and productive conversations with the technical teams, where many unknowns turned into clarity,” said Alexander Amiri, Director of Sponsorship and Partnership at WorldSkills International.

The presence of the WorldSkills Champions Trust was a plus, with their key involvement in many important side events and their engagement with Delegates, Global Partners, and Event Sponsors. Representatives Cloé Lemarechal, from France, Dan McCabe, from the UK, Sonya Hill, from Jamaica, and Yousra Assali, from Morocco, were in attendance.

During CPW, they collaborated with the WorldSkills Lyon 2024 Communication Team generating interesting promotional content for the lead up to the Competition.

On the first day of CPW, Cloé and Yousra shared with the media their WorldSkills journey at a press conference that revealed important details of WorldSkills Lyon 2024. The press conference highlighted the legacy and impact that the Competition will have on the host country and the City of Lyon.

“The press conference was a good platform to share my experience. I had the opportunity to talk about my journey and explained why we need to grow the WorldSkills movement,” expressed Cloé.

Part of the WorldSkills Champions Trust responsibilities was to host the launch of WorldSkills cultural exchange programme, One School One Country, an important highlight of CPW.  

WorldSkills Lyon 2024 will show the world that Where there is a skill, there is a way. A major industrial centre and a global reference for gastronomy and cuisine, the city of Lyon will host the 47th WorldSkills Competition from 10 to 15 September 2024. Over 1,500 Competitors from over 65 countries and regions will compete in 62 skill competitions. Organizing the Competition in France aligns with the country’s strategy to promote vocational education and training and transform it to adapt to current and future employment needs.