The biggest skills competition in the region, WorldSkills ASEAN, hosted by Singapore for the first time, was held at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre. Over 170 young people from ASEAN member countries were seen competing across 22 skill areas in 3 days of gruelling competitions at the 13th edition of WorldSkills ASEAN, which concluded on Thursday.
WorldSkills Asean aims to showcase opportunities in vocational training and education and raise skills standards among youth in the region.
Singapore was represented by 44 young people from institutes of higher learning in all 22 categories, and picked up 26 medals – 8 gold, 4 silver, 8 bronze, and 6 medallions for excellence, putting the Republic second in the medal tally among the nine Asean member states that participated, while Indonesia leads with 27 medals including 14 golds.
Singapore came out on top in cooking, graphic design technology, beauty therapy, computer numerical control (CNC) maintenance, industrial control, mechatronics, Internet of Things and network cabling. Other categories include fashion technology and mobile robotics.
At the prize-giving and closing ceremony of the competition, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing urged Asean countries to invest in lifelong skills development to remain competitive on the international stage. He said skill mastery was especially important in a future of work where automation and the adoption of artificial intelligence are increasing in the workplace. He also stated that facilitating the green transition for our industries as well as addressing the global challenge of climate change will also require new green skills.
Participants were presented with various challenges, putting their mettle and skills to the test. Competitors in the cooking category, for instance, had to produce 3-course meals over 3 days using mystery ingredients that were presented on the day itself, such as prawns and sea bass, testing their creativity and adaptability.
Mr. Leonard Chia, 20, was all smiles as he whipped up a series of dishes and meals over 3 days, despite a ‘new’ kitchen to get used to and the pressures of being surrounded by a crowd. The Nanyang Polytechnic Diploma in Food and Beverage Business student said he was really happy because this was the first time Singapore was in the top 3 in the cooking category for WorldSkills Asean. Mr. Chia scooped up a gold medal showcasing culinary flair across finger food, a casual dining meal, and a fine dining meal inclusive of a deconstructed black forest dessert.
It was one of 8 Singapore won in the event often dubbed the Youth Olympics of Vocational Skills. ITE College East student and gold medalist Christine Huang Yan Xin, 18, was unable to complete her tasks in the beauty therapy category in time on the first day of the competition, but she persevered and ‘went all out’ on the other days, managing to turn it around in the end.
In robotics, competitors had to complete different tasks and troubleshoot based on a given scenario such as programming a robot to dispense and deliver supplies in a simulated hospital setting. The tasks turned more complex on the final day, requiring them to scan for yellow cubes representing waste items and dispose of them.
Participants had to disassemble and re-assemble electric rail components as well as identify and troubleshoot faults, in the Rapid Transit Systems category, which was new to the competition. Students experienced scenarios such as faults in the rail system in a simulation of a Thomson-East Coast Line train and had to manually drive the train back to the station.
MOE and other institutes of higher learning in conjunction with WorldSkills, organized an education and career guidance fair with over 70 industry partners, featuring interactive activities apart from the skills competition, which was attended by about 10,000 secondary school students.
