The Directorate of Industrial and Vocational Training (DIVT) Director Mr. Earnest Simelane together with the office of Chief Inspector Tertiary Colleges led a delegation to the Gauteng provincial WorldSkills competition as an observer. The kingdom is geared to hold national skills competitions in 2024 in trades yet to be finalized.

The delegation comprises of the DIVT Director Mr. Earnest Simelane, Acting Chief Inspector Tertiary Colleges Ms Thembekile Dlamini, Eswatini College of Technology (ECOT) Principal Mrs. Nomcebo Nhlengetfwa, Tertiary Colleges Inspector Mr. Nimrod Mdluli and one design and technology high school teacher Mr. Sam Shabangu. Amongst the delegation are the Technical and Vocational Skills Certification Enhancement project personnel led by its project manager Mr. Baron Wang.

The 2023 provincial skills competition in South Africa kicked-off in August 20^th, 2023 and will close on September 15^th, 2023. The skills competitions are specifically for the youth aged between 18 and 22 years and they compete on the trades including welding, electrical installations, refrigeration and air-conditioning, fashion technology, bakery, cooking, plumbing, beauty therapy, bricklaying, hairdressing and many others. The winners in each province will attend the national competition and the crème de la crème of South Africa will represent their country in 2024 WorldSkills competition in Leon, France. In total, South Africa registered for 24 trades at the WorldSkills International and is one of the 85 countries in the world participating in WorldSkills International Competitions.

Mr. Baron Wang expressed deep commitment in assisting the country to hold the national skills competitions and further compete in regional and international competitions. Worth-noting is that the project had in few months back hosted the WorldSkills International’s Strategic board member Mr. Lin San-Quei to promote skills competitions among top government officials. Mr. Lin is a Taiwanese national and former deputy minister of labour and have worked extensively with the Workforce Development Agency. The project in its endeavor to promote skills competitions; it had sent the DIVT director and one ECOT lecturer Mrs. Philile Dlamini-Nabaala to a one-week skills seminar in Taiwan while two other lecturers from Gwamile VOCTIM and one from the National Handicraft Training Centre were sent to Taiwan for a 6 weeks training which also touched on skills competitions. The trip of the delegation to South Africa had also been funded by project.

The Eswatini delegation will be hosted by the World Skills South Africa (WSZA) and the WSZA is under the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The DHET has held national competitions since 2015 and had participated in WorldSkills International Competitions in Brazil (2015), Abu Dhabi (2017) and Russia (2019).  The delegation had been in South Africa from September 11^th to the 13^th, 2023.  One the first day, the delegation visited the Tshwane North TVET College (Pretoria Campus) and Ekurhuleni East College (Springs Campus) for bakery, fashion technology and restaurant services competitions. On the second day, the delegation visited South West Gauteng TVET College (Molapo Campus) for welding and, plumbing and heating competitions. The delegation also visited Ekurhuleni West TVET College (Springs Campus) for restaurant services.  

The Tshwane North TVET College showcased its strength and massive achievement in the TVET sector to the Eswatini delegation. For instance, the fashion and design department provide learnership or apprenticeship to its graduates at it’s mini-factory. The mini-factory produces all the institution T-shirts for staff and students and as well as all protective clothing including the SABS Approved fire and oil resistant. The delegation was even served scrumptious refreshment by the institutions’ students. 

The Acting Director for WSZA Mr. Fumani Mboweni has extended an invitation to the delegation to also attend the national WorldSkills competitions to be held around the 02^nd of February 2024 or early in January 2023 to continue familiarizing themselves with the competitions to get a better understanding of them before introducing them in the country. He emphasized that hosting the national competition is costly as they spend approximately R30 million and thanked the companies that’s support WSZA activities. Also present at the Tshwane provincial WorldSkills competition was the Foodbev, a food and beverage manufacturing sector representative which sponsors WSZA’s robotics, restaurant services and cooking skills competition.

At the South West TVET College (Molapo Campus), the delegation was warmly received by WSZA’s Malowa Mamphela. The WorldSkills competition eventually did not start at Molapo as there were some technical glitches and the delegation was then taken to Springs Campus. The campus hosted the Gauteng restaurant services where the contestant competed on table boxing, napkin folding, wine and spirit identification, wine pouring, cocktails, banqueting, wine decanting and flambé. The delegation became perfect guests for the contestant as they were served all the dishes prepared by the contestants.