About the competition
WorldSkills Lyon 2024 is the 47th world championship in vocational skills.
WorldSkills Lyon 2024
The next WorldSkills competition will be held in Lyon, France, on 10-15 September 2024. The Finnish National Team consists of 22 experts and 22 competitors. Finland's competitors will take part in 20 categories.
In the majority of the skills, the competitors are 23 years of age or less. Experts serve as the competition’s specialists and judges. The Finnish experts are often vocational teachers, and the training for the Competition is carried out collaboratively between vocational education providers and employers.
The WorldSkills Lyon 2024 Competition will include 62 skills in total, representing a wide variety of different vocational professions, from practical nurses and chefs to welders and electricians. There are a total of 1,500 competitors from around the world. The Eurexpo Lyon Fair Centre is expecting 250,000 visitors.
Background
The right to organise WorldSkills competitions is granted by the WorldSkills International (WSI), which includes 87 member countries. Skills Finland joined WorldSkills International (formerly IVTO) in 1988. The following year, the Finnish team participated in the WorldSkills competition in Birmingham.
Over the years, Finland has achieved nearly 60 medals in the WorldSkills competitions. This indicates the high quality of Finnish vocational education and training and the strong willingness of Finns to train.
The WorldSkills competition has been organised twice in Finland. WorldSkills Helsinki 2005 was organised as a major event at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre. The second time the competition took place in Finland was in 2022, as the organisation of the skills was spread out between different countries due to the coronavirus pandemic. Finland organised a competition of four skills in the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition competition at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre.
Finland’s aim in the WorldSkills Competitions is to develop top Finnish expertise and boost the international presence of Finnish vocational education and training. In addition to the WorldSkills competition, Team Finland participates in the EuroSkills and Abilympics competitions. The next EuroSkills competition will take place in Herning, Denmark in 2025 and Abilympics in Helsinki, Finland in 2027.
Team Finland is brought together and sent to the competition by Skills Finland, a member of the WSI, in close cooperation with vocational institutions. Skills Finland is a non-profit organisation that promotes the quality and attractiveness of vocational education and training through competition and training activities. In addition to participating in international competitions, Skills Finland organises the National Skills Competition Taitaja. The background supporters of the association established in 1993 include the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Finnish National Agency for Education and vocational institutions, and key labour market and educational organisations.