Simon Bartley: Skills Development Is a Tool on the Path Towards the Future

MOSCOW, August 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The President of WorldSkills International, Simon Bartley, took part in a discussion during the plenary session "Labour productivity: growth factors 2024" within the framework of the business programme of the finals of the 6th WorldSkills Russia 'Young Professionals' National Championship 2018.

In his speech, he stressed that by joining the WorldSkills movement in 2012, Russia has made an important step in improving vocational education and increasing labour productivity.

"Russia has very quickly developed a desire to host the WorldSkills competitions on its territory. And so, in 2019, the international finals will be held in Kazan. I believe this is a bright moment in the development of the WorldSkills movement in Russia. I also consider it very important that it has been officially recognised at the level of the government and the President of the Russian Federation that skills development is an important tool on the path towards a successful future," Mr. Bartley stressed.

He also named three crucial factors which are necessary for labour productivity to be improved, and are of key importance in the development of production.

"The first is the environment in which the training, skills, and research take place. The WorldSkills movement plays a huge role in creating such an environment. At our events, we get the best experience from around the world. There are also employers, entrepreneurs and academics who will take this experience and transfer it further through the educational institutions to the staff of today and the future. Students in colleges, schools and educational institutions are the labour force of tomorrow.  

"The second is entrepreneurship.  All global research, studying the future of the job environment, believes that there will be increasingly more people who will work for themselves, or in small groups - based on the small business principle. Our champions naturally reach out for entrepreneurship. Large businesses also need to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit among their employees. I am convinced that my colleagues from China and Korea have achieved such results, because they contributed to the growth of entrepreneurial consciousness among their employees. 

"And the last is the rights of an employee. The future of a person will only be successful if businesses grant the right and power to their employees to decide for themselves and cease to be just executors of the top down decisions. This is very important - decision-making executed by the employee himself," Simon Bartley listed the key factors of labour productivity.

He also noted that the pace of development of human capital varies in different countries of the world, and this fact must be taken into account in the race of globalisation and the increase of labour productivity.

"In order to be successful in this world, we need to understand and accept the most effective models so that they can be broadcast in real time to other participants," Bartley stated.

After the plenary session, Simon Bartley answered the journalists' questions. During the discussion, he explained that the set of skills included in the WorldSkills list is constantly changing. At the same time, organisers of competitions make attempts to keep a fixed number of them (approx. 50). Once a new skill appears on the list, some other one must be excluded.

"This is an entire system how we identify new skills, how we work with them. First, today, a lot of skills include working with a computer, and so, here, one needs to clearly understand the limits of this or that skill, and this is difficult. Secondly, in our organisation, we have 79 member countries which have different levels of technological development. Therefore, our task is to provide precisely the set of skills that would suit most of these countries. This is also a bit limiting to us," the President of the WorldSkills International announced.

Simon Bartley has been the head of WorldSkills International since 2011. He is also a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers and the City and Guilds of London Institute, and a member of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.