Excellent news for Isa Carstens Academy – Roeléne is going to Brazil!!!

The Isa Carstens Academy is proud to announce that Roeléne Groenewald, 3rd year student, has won the World Skills National Competition in the Beauty Therapy category. She will be representing South Africa in this category in the 43rd World Skills Competition at Anhembi Parque, São Paulo, Brazil from 11 to 16 August 2015.

The World Skills International Competition is held every two years and is the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world that truly reflects global industry. South Africa recently joined the group of countries to host this prestigious competition on the National Level, with the flagship World Skills South Africa Competition held in Cape Town, 28 January – 1 February 2015, where Roeléne participated and won.

The International Competitors represent the best of their peers and are selected from regional and national skill competitions in World Skills Member countries. They are all under the age of 23 years (except for four skills that have the age limit of 25). They demonstrate technical abilities both individually and collectively to execute specific tasks for which they study and/or perform in their workplace. One of the main legacies of the World Skills Competitions is to give visibility and importance to professional education, as one of the true tools of socio-economic transformation.

To prepare Roeléne for the regional and national competitions, she was assisted by Mrs Zoya Nell and Mrs Amanda Schooling, both members of the Isa Carstens Academy Education Team. With the guidance of the appointed regional expert, Lizna Nel, all participants were well prepared for their task at National Level, that spanned over 3 days of intense competition.

Dr Blade Nzimande, the honourable Minister of Higher Education, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Mr Mduduzi Manana and Dr Raymond Patel, CEO of World Skills South Africa, support and advocate skills training and support this competition that is now driven by the TVET Colleges sector. Ms Ester van der Linde, the custodian of World Skills South Africa representing the SETA section also is a great supporter of the competition and drives the World Skills Competition from the merSETA side. It is interesting how in countries such as Finland this particular competition is now changing the perceptions of people regarding trades and making trades “cool” again.