Our speaker at our meeting on on 30 October 2018 was Malcolm Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Worldskills New Zealand.

Malcolm prior to taking up the appointment of chief executive officer of Worldskills previously been involved with the Americas Cup Sponsorship Program, he has previously led Hockey NZ and Netball NZ. Malcolm also worked for over 30 years at Fisher and Paykel Appliances culminating in the role of chief operating officer. He also was CEO of Meredith Connell, holders of the Crown Solicitor’s warrant in Auckland, a period of time.

Malcolm gave us an introduction to Worldskills New Zealand.

It is an independent, nonprofit charitable trust founded in 1986 which is dedicated to encouraging young people under the age of 21 to excell in vocational skills of all varieties. This is done by exposing those young people to competitions that engage their trade skills, be they carpentry, joinery, plumbing, coding and similar at regional, national and international levels.

Worldskills was established in 1953. There are 80 member countries of which New Zealand is one.

Every two years there is a Worldskills International Competition – 1300 competitors from 57 countries in 51 skill categories - A skills Olympics if you will. The next international competition will take place in Kazan in 2019. Young people get to compete these events by participating in regional competitions, the National competitions and then if they are good enough the international competitions. Malcolm made the point that it is not enough to qualify yourself for the international competition. You need to be good enough to compete and consequently some who have achieved qualification do not to represent New Zealand as their actual skill levels are inadequate to compete at the highest level.

In the last international event  New Zealand sent 13 competitors and achieved one gold medal was achieved.

Malcolm made the point that New Zealand has an acute skills shortage – the average age of a builder is 45 years the average age of an apprentice now 27 whereas it used to be 23. More apprentices have been to university than have not been to university. The focus on our education system at school level is on a university career when in fact many students are not temperamentally suited for that sort of study and would do better in a trade career. This is a point of world skills. The aim is to enhance trade skills and show to young people that a university degree is not in many cases a road to success.  Malcolm made the comment that President Putin saw the worth of improving trade skills when the Russian Federations representatives some years ago finished well down the field.  With focus on the area the Russians now lead the pack with their trade skills.

Achieving world skills takes work, it takes time, and it takes a lot of practice. These can be offputting to some both employers and employees, the reality is however an employee skills improve, their productivity increases and they create Malcolm made the point that there is a skill shortage in New Zealand and the point of world skills is to raise the profile of skilled trades people through success on the world stage and demonstrating how those skills can lead to personal success and economic growth.value for their employer. For an employer the impact is the same there is an improvement in skill level, improvement and work output, productivity and no doubt profitability.

The trick is raising awareness of trade skills and their worth, which is what Worldskills NZ is seeking to do. 

Malcolm’s address was very interesting and well received, and attracted a good number of questions from members when he concluded his address.

For more information on WorldSkills visit www.worldskills.org.nz