The first national professional skills competition of young professionals SkillsLatvia 2017 has finished and 53 winners in 16 various professions have been awarded medals. For three days 96 competitors from 30 vocational education establishments in Latvia performed practical tasks equal to international standards and demonstrated their skills and their compliance with the labour market requirements.
Education establishments with most prizes in Riga, Liepāja, Priekuļi and Daugavpils
Totally 16 sets of medals were presented in the competition SkillsLatvia 2017 in all the professions represented at the competition, like a technician of computer systems, a window dressing expert, a fashion technology expert, a hairdresser, a cook, a mobile robotics technician, a tile layer, a technician of drywall systems, etc. Gold medals were received by 18 competitors, silver medals by 18 competitors and bronze medals by 17 competitors.
In the overall results of vocational education establishments, by receiving the highest number of the 1st-3rd prizes, during the national competition which took place from the 20th to the 22nd of April at Ķīpsala, the best skills were demonstrated and nine prizes were received by students of Riga Technical College of Arts and Media, the second place with 8 prizes was reached by Liepāja State Technical College and the third place with three prizes was shared by Daugavpils Technical College, Riga State Technical College and Riga Secondary School of Design and Arts.
It is important to note that the national competition in the profession of the agriculture mechanics took place earlier, from the 6th to the 7th of April at the trade fair centre "Rāmava". In the overall results, taking into account also the results of this profession, Priekuļi Technical College with 4 prizes takes the third place, as the students from this school won the 2nd and the 3rd prize in the competition of the agriculture mechanics profession in Rāmava.
See the complete list of winners and the professions and all the vocational education establishments, including their individual results, here.
Every competitor is a valuable employee already today
"In the skills competition SkillsLatvia 2017 the most talented, skilful and determined young professionals from the Latvian vocational education establishments have been selected. Each of them is a valuable professional already today and employers are interested in employing them. The competition atmosphere tests not only the knowledge and skills, but also the competitors' ability to focus and to take decisions in complicated work conditions. We are satisfied that industries have been very responsive during the very first SkillsLatvia competition, thus promoting the appreciation of the vocational education among employers. It should be emphasised that the winners of SkillsLatvia 2017 will compete for the possibility to represent Latvia at the international skills competitions EuroSkills and WorldSkills," Dita Traidās, the Director of the VIAA, informed.
"Participation at the competition SkillsLatvia 2017 provides a lot of assurance of their skills for their further growth to the young professionals.This is no longer school, this is a high level demonstration of the professional skills," Ilze Začeste, an expert of SkillsLatvia 2017 evaluation commission in the profession of window dressing, says.
"I am satisfied with and proud of the performance demonstrated by competitors and the results. The competitors' skills are of a very high level. It should be appreciated that industries were involved in the preparation of the competition. I think that each competitor is worth employing," the results were commented by Raimonds Zommers, an expert of SkillsLatvia 2017 evaluation commission in the profession of cooking.