14 October 2015

The first republican professional skills championship among schoolchildren will be held in Belarus in May 2016 as a part of the JuniorSkills program. The decision to hold the competition was made, following the workshop JuniorSkills: new approaches to career guidance that took place in Minsk on October 13.

The workshop’s final resolution also confirmed the establishment of the JuniorSkills movement in Belarus. It was stated that first representatives of the neighboring republic would take part in the Russian competition JuniorSkills that is a part of the national championship Hi-Tech 2015 that will be held on October 30-November 3 in Yekaterinburg.

The workshop was attended by Program Director of the Educational programs of Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation, JuniorSkills Program Director in Russia, Irina Nikolaeva, Deputy Minister of Education of the Republic of Belarus, Viktor Yakzhik, Rector of the Republican Institute for Vocational Education, Arkady Shklyar as well as heads and specialists of the municipal and regional educational authorities.

Irina Nikolaeva delivered a report entitled “JuniorSkills movement in Russia: mission, aims, legal, substantive and organizational issues”. “This program’s main mission is to bring up young generation inspired by the importance of professional values,” she said.

Belarusian colleagues agreed that JuniorSkills program was capable of eliminating existing deficit in qualified workers and engineers at the republic’s enterprises.

The JuniorSkills program, that is aimed at providing school students with early professional career guidance and basic career education, was launched by Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation in 2014 in cooperation with the Agency for strategic initiatives and WorldSkills Russia with the support of Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as the Ministry of Education and Science. JuniorSkills objective is to create new opportunities for career guidance and professional training for students.

The first Russian professional skills championship among school children JuniorSkills was held in Yekaterinburg on October 30-November 2, 2014 as part of the nationwide championship on cross-industry blue-collar professions in hi-tech WorldSkills. A total of 53 teams of 110 participants aged 10-17 and 64 experts from eight Russian regions took part in the competition.