Taiwan at this year’s WorldSkills Competition won two gold, three silver and 10 bronze, as well as 28 “medallions for excellence,” at the 47th edition of the vocational skills contest which was held from Tuesday last week to Sunday in Lyon, France.
WorldSkills is “the world’s largest international skills competition,” which features 1,400 young competitors from about 70 countries and regions, the organizer’s official Web site said.
The 58-member team from Taiwan participated in the biannual event under the designation “Chinese Taipei,” with Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) accompanying the team to France.
Photo: CNA
The 43 prizes represented Taiwan’s best haul over the past three events, Ho told a news conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday.
Of the 58 Taiwanese who participated, 86 percent of them won awards, Ho said, adding that they would be given NT$13.3 million (US$416,510) in prize money.
Ho earlier said she took “great pride” and “harbored huge hopes” for the future of Taiwan’s vocational education after witnessing the high level of detail and execution exhibited by the Taiwanese competitors.
Tsai Yun-rong (蔡昀融) won gold in cabinetmaking, while Chen Sz-yuan (陳思源) obtained the top award in the refrigeration and air-conditioning category.
Chuang Jia-you (莊佳祐), Chen Yi-zhi (陳奕誌) and Lin I-huang (林奕篁) won silver in industrial mechanics, industrial control and floristry respectively.
During a telephone interview, Tsai said that upon hearing the results he felt he had “finally made it.”
Recalling his hard work in preparing for the competition, he said he felt exhausted and wanted to give up, but “I managed to hold on after thinking of the support from my teachers and senior classmates,” he said.
Born to a family with links to carpentry, Tsai said they gave him a lot of support.
“I began practicing carpentry in kindergarten and took part in competitions when I was a junior-high school student,” he said.
For his part, Chen described himself as detail and practice-oriented, which he said helped him overcome difficulties in pipe-fitting and welding during the competition to beat 23 other competitors.
Having grown up in a family involved in trade, Chen said he developed an interest in mechanics in his childhood and began to learn the air-conditioning trade at age 15.
“It was sometimes so tiring along the way, but I would quickly turn energetic whenever I thought of the support that my family and teachers gave me,” he said.
Chen said winning gold was a “dream come true.”
The next WorldSkills Competition is scheduled to take place in Shanghai in 2026.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS