From 5th to 9th of September European competition of young professionals EuroSkills 2023 took place in Gdansk, Poland. Renārs Gausiņš, SkillsLatvia team member and the student of the Riga State Technical School, won a medal of excellence in the Web Technologies and Development category.
Renārs competed with 18 other young professionals, taking 9th place in the overall ranking and beating countries such as Finland, Austria and Belgium. Medals of excellence are awarded to contestants whose score exceeds 700 points. Renārs also received an award Best of Nation for the best performance in the national team.
Dita Traidās, Director of the State Education Development Agency (SEDA) and official representative of the Latvian team: "In today's job market, knowledge and skills in the digital field are becoming increasingly important, while specialists in this field are more in demand than ever before. Digitalisation is our new reality, and this medal of excellence confirms that Latvia is powerful in this sector and can provide highly qualified young professionals. The high return and performance of all SkillsLatvia's young professionals and experts should be highlighted, especially given many technical and organizational issues experienced this time on the part of the organizers of the competition."
"Across Europe, there has been a decrease in interest in vocational training among young people. It is necessary to think about how to maintain the prestige of vocational education and highlight the benefits of trades and professions, because acquired professional skills and knowledge form the beginning of a solid foundation in life, which can be supplemented and improved over the years. Skills competitions are a great opportunity that can help young people find themselves and gain momentum for learning a profession, inspired by the motivation and success of their peers," added D. Traidās.
This year, nine contestants from six vocational education institutions represented Latvia in the EuroSkills competition, taking part in eight skills competitions. A total of 576 young people from 32 European countries competed in the EuroSkills competition, demonstrating their professional abilities in 42 skills competitions and making it the most widely represented competitions in terms of number of skills up till now.
EuroSkills provides an opportunity to present the quality of vocational education in Latvia, compares professional competences, promotes competitiveness, as well as increases the popularity and attractiveness of vocational education.
The EuroSkills competition for young professionals is held every second year and alternates with the world-wide professional skills competition WorldSkills. WorldSkills Europe currently has 32 member countries from across Europe. In the organization each member state is represented by only one delegated body, and in Latvia it is SEDA.
A photo gallery of the competition days can be found in SEDA Flickr gallery. You can find out more about the competition on the SkillsLatvia Facebook page and on the SEDA website in the EuroSkills section.