On Tuesday the Latvian team arrived to Gotheburg where they will participate in the biggest and most prestigious European skills competition of young professionals EuroSkills 2016.
This was a long day for competitors because their morning started early and they had two flights to reach the destination. Upon arrival to Gotheburg, the competitors were met by a pleasant surprise, as the comparatively small Swedish city had turned into a beautiful Christmas land. It was decorated with lights, trees and houses were all decorated and the presence of Christmas was felt everywhere.
All the 450 competitors from 35 countries met at the welcome reception where the introduction address was presented by Hubert Romer, the President of WorldSkills Europe, from Germany. He encouraged competitors not only to perform their competition tasks with great care, but also to allocate time for getting acquainted with representatives from other countries and their cultures.
Late in the evening competitors uses the opportunity to meet their profession experts who had been in Gotheburg for two days and working in their profession workshops to organise the competition and to settle the evaluation system.
Despite the exhaustion all the competitors admitted that they were impatiently waiting for the first competition day in order to set to performing their tasks. There was pleasant ėxcitement as to what should be expected, however, this did not prevent everybody to look forward to the beginning of the competition with a smile on the face.
Today the young professionals plan to get acquainted with their work environment and to arrange it, as well as to test the equipment. 5 to 8 hours are allocated for this. In the evening there is the official opening ceremony.
More photos from the competition EuroSkills 2016 at VIAA Flickr account or a brief photo report.
Participation in EuroSkills 2016 takes place within the framework of the Operational Program of the European Union Funds "Growth and Employment" Specific Aid Objective 8.3.5 "Improvement of approach to the career support to students at general and vocational education establishments" project "Career support at general and vocational education establishments".