Africa-Press – Eswatini. IN preparation for the national skills competition next year, a delegation from Eswatini attended the Gauteng Provincial WorldSkills competition as an observer.
The delegation was led by the Technical and Vocational Skills Certification Enhancement (TVET) Project under the Taiwan Technical Mission.
The kingdom is set to hold the national skills competitions in various trades.
The 2023 provincial skills competition in South Africa kicked off on August 20 and ran for almost a month.
TVET team was joined by the Directorate of Industrial and Vocational Training (DIVT) and the office of chief inspector tertiary colleges under the ministry of education and training.
The delegation comprised of the DIVT Director Earnest Simelane, acting Chief Inspector Tertiary Colleges Thembekile Dlamini, Eswatini College of Technology (ECOT) Principal Nomcebo Nhlengetfwa, Tertiary Colleges Inspector Nimrod Mdluli and one design and technology high school teacher Sam Shabangu.
TVET Project Manager Baron Wang said they were committed to assisting the country successfully host the national skills competitions and further compete in regional and international competitions.
Wang said a few months ago, the project hosted WorldSkills International Strategic board member Lin San-Quei to promote skills competitions among top government officials.
He also noted that Lin was a Taiwanese national and former deputy minister of labour having worked extensively with the Workforce Development Agency in Taiwan.
In its endeavour to promote skills competitions, he said they sent the DIVT director and ECOT lecturer Philile Dlamini-Nabaala to a one-week skills seminar in Taiwan while two other lecturers from Gwamile VOCTIM and one from the National Handicraft Training Centre were sent to Taiwan for a six-week training, which also touched on skills competitions.
“Eswatini delegation was hosted by the World Skills South Africa (WSZA) and the WSZA is under the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The DHET has held national competitions since 2015 and has participated in WorldSkills International Competitions in Brazil (2015), Abu Dhabi (2017) and Russia (2019).
“On the first day, the delegation visited the Tshwane North TVET College (Pretoria Campus) and Ekurhuleni East College (Springs Campus) for bakery, fashion technology and restaurant services competitions. On the second day, the delegation visited South West Gauteng TVET College (Molapo Campus) for welding and plumbing and heating competitions,” Wang said.
He added that the skills competitions specifically targeted the youth aged between 18 and 22 and they compete on the trades, including welding, electrical installations, refrigeration and air-conditioning, fashion technology, bakery, cooking, plumbing, beauty therapy, bricklaying, hairdressing and many others.
He said the winners in each province would then attend the national competition and the crème de la crème of South Africa will represent their country in the 2024 WorldSkills competition in Leon, France.
In total, South Africa registered for 24 trades at the WorldSkills International and is one of the 85 countries in the world participating in WorldSkills International Competitions.
The Tshwane North TVET College showcased its strength and massive achievement in the TVET sector to the Eswatini delegation.
Meanwhile, acting Director for WSZA Fumani Mboweni extended an invitation to the delegation to also attend the national WorldSkills competitions to be held from February 4, 2024.
He said the Eswatini delegation’s visit was to familiarise themselves with the competitions in order to get a better understanding of them before introducing them in the country.
Also present at the Tshwane provincial WorldSkills competition was Foodbev, a food and beverage manufacturing sector representative, which sponsors WSZA’s robotics, restaurant services and cooking skills competition.At the South West TVET College (Molapo Campus), the delegation was warmly received by WSZA’s Malowa Mamphela.
“The WorldSkills competition eventually did not start at Molapo as there were some technical glitches and the delegation was then taken to Springs Campus.
The delegation became perfect guests for the contestant as they were served all the dishes prepared by the contestants.
“The campus hosted the Gauteng restaurant services where the contestant competed on table boxing, napkin folding, wine and spirit identification, wine pouring, cocktails, banqueting, wine decanting and flambé,” Mamphela said.
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