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
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