48-member Indian contingent for WorldSkills Competition 2019 to leave for Kazan on Aug 18

The Indian team for WorldSkills International Competition 2019 scheduled to take place in Kazan, Russia from 22^nd to 27^th August 2019,  will leave for the Russian city this weekend and will participate in 44 skills including mobile robotics, prototype modelling, hairdressing, baking, confectionary & patisserie, welding, brick laying, car painting, floristry among others. 

Referred to as the ‘Olympics for Skills’, the largest skill competition held biennially since 2011,  will see more than 1,500 competitors from 60 countries compete in 55 skill competitions. The Team India includes participants from all over the country, including 6 from the North-Eastern region. 77% of these come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and can speak 10 different languages. Most of these competitors come from a very humble background, with 35% have their parents either employed in the agriculture sector or are working as daily wage earners. 

Details of the competitors are as follows:

For 20-year Utkarsh from UP, who was rusticated in class XI five years ago for defying school authorities on sporting hair styles despite repeated reprimands, Worldskills at Kazan offers a lifetime opportunity to prove his passion as a skill is world class. “One can participate only once at this competition in life. I couldn’t make it beyond nationals two years ago but now I am thrilled to compete with the best in the world in hairdressing,” he adds.

Another hopeful Angad Singh Rana from Delhi will try his hands on cooking. “I am preparing for this nonstop for the past two and a half years. My institute (Pusa, Delhi where he is pursing diploma in Hotel Management) and my teachers are backing me. I also got landholding from NSDC and am training under expert chefs rigorously,” he says.

M Vishwanathan from Tamil Nadu, also a student will be competing in plastic die engineering. “I am very excited as all my preparation will be put to test. I will have to use software and then actually put together the model. I am hopeful of winning,” he says.

Abhishek AN from Hasan is participating in prototye modeling skill at Kazan. “I come from a village from a farming family, so mud and clay in in my blood literally.” Trained in Bangalore with a corporate foundation, he will be using software to design the challenge that will be thrown at the competition and then he will prepare a model using chemical admixtures.

It may be mentioned that  selection of Team India for WorldSkills 2019 began in January 2018, with the roll out of a scheme on IndiaSkills Competitions. More than 22 states collaborated and organized close to 500 district and state level competitions between March and April 2018. The winners at these events, competed at four regional competitions organized at Jaipur, Lucknow, Bangalore and Bhubaneswar.

The winners from the regional competitions further competed at the National Competition organized from 2^nd to 6^th October 2018 at Aerocity Grounds in Delhi. Since then, the selected candidates have been undergoing rigorous training and have also participated in international competitions in order to hone their skills and gain the required experience. Most competitors have also received training at international centers which has significantly enhanced their skills.

More than 100 corporates and education institutes including Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota, Festo, VLCC, Godrej, Axalta, Apollo, Berger Paints, Cisco, Caple, Saint Gobain, Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Schneider, Pearl Academy, NTTF, Daikin, L&T etc.  have come forward to support this initiative. These corporates have also helped in identifying a master trainer/expert who provides hands-on-training to each competitor and monitor their progress on day to day basis.