Published: 27 August 2012

Vocational skills green games aims for gold

The 2012 WorldSkills (WSA) Australia National Competition being held in Sydney on Thursday 30 August will be the greenest such event to date: a WSA ‘Green Team’ will be there to measure, track and assess the sustainability of what they say is one of the most logistically complex events held in Australia.

Participants in the 2012 WorldSkills ‘green games’: organisers say this year will be the most environmentally friendly event to date. Credit: WorldSkills Australia

The WSA National Competition, held biennially, will take over Sydney Olympic Park for three days of competition where apprentices, trainees and students will compete for gold in categories such as autobody repair, retail bread baking, bricklaying, hairdressing and IT support.

Testing the skills of 500 competitors in front of a crowd of over 80,000 would otherwise require significant quantities of water, energy and materials which, in turn, results in substantial amounts of waste

However, since its inception in 2008, the Green Team has delivered a 22 per cent reduction in the environmental footprint of the National Competition despite a 42 per cent growth in the scale of the event.

This year there will be further innovation with teams of Event Management and Environment Management students from TAFE NSW determining which category will take home the coveted Award in 2012.

‘In previous years, competition for the ARUP Skills for Sustainability Award has been friendly but fierce,’ said Dr Fabian Sack, Green Team Facilitator, ‘I’m really excited to see what sustainable innovations the categories bring to the competition this year.’

The 2010 WorldSkills Australia National Competition, held in Brisbane, saw a significant improvement on the 2008 results, with 88 per cent of waste generated during the competition being recycled. While it is estimated that the 2012 event will produce approximately 50 tonnes of waste, accurate ‘green’ planning and implementation by the Green Team will help to ensure that WorldSkills Australia achieves its goal of further reducing the event footprint once again.

The WorldSkills Australia National Competition aims to highlight sustainable options and methods to young people in the vocational education and training sector. This in turn provides the next generation of business leaders with an understanding of the necessary skills required to drive the Australian economy now and into the future.

‘The WorldSkills Australia movement is made up of teachers, trainers, employers and thought leaders who young people are now looking to for answers on how they can develop the skills required to meet future demands,’ said Mark Callaghan, CEO of WorldSkills Australia.

‘WSA provides the means for the Australia community to see and understand the practical connection between higher order vocational skills and our sustainable future,.’

The Green Team is a partnership between WorldSkills Australia, Dusseldorp Skills Forum, ARUP and TAFE NSW North Sydney and Western Sydney Institutes.

Source: WorldSkills Australia