WorldSkills - Leipzig 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flying the flag Medallion for Excellence for Irish beauty therapy competitor.
Team Ireland celebrated at this year’s WorldSkills competition, which took place in Leipzig, Germany this Summer.
After four days of intense competition, Team Ireland, whose members are all aged 18 – 25 years, won two Gold Medals, a Bronze and seven Medallions for Excellence including one for Ella O'Doherty, of Castleknock, Dublin who represented the Beauty Therapy discipline. Other competitions ranged from Bricklaying and Autobody Repair to Aircraft Maintenance and Floristry.
Ella achieved a fantastic sixth place out of 21 competitors from across the globe, behind Mei-Hu Fu of Chinese Taipei (Gold), Catherine Boye of Singapore (Silver) and Lovisa Petri of Sweden (Bronze). She won the chance to compete at the finals after gaining first place at the Ireland Skills National Competition for Beauty Therapy held last December, beating six other therapists from across the country.
Global support
WorldSkills Leipzig 2013 was sponsored by Global Industry Partner Dermalogica, whose products were used in every skin care component of the Beauty Therapy
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competition. “Dermalogica was the natural choice to train, coach and prepare the competitors in the arena of professional skin care,” explains Annet King, Director of Global Education, Dermalogica and The International Dermal Institute. “As we have a global network of partners in 83 countries we were able to provide intensive training and coaching for the competitors in the beauty therapy category, and all of the professional products used during the skin and body portion of the competition.”
Annet continues: “In past years, products would be provided locally at the competition and they would only get to try everything out and use the products one day prior (on ‘familiarisation’ day) to the actual competition. But with us being onboard as a global sponsor, each participant received a full kit of the products and access to training in their own country, web and video support, so they had much more of an opportunity to practice and get comfortable before actually entering the final competition in Leipzig.”
Impressive
Annet and the Dermalogica team were impressed with the level of expertise
demonstrated across the beauty therapy category. “Generally, with nearly all competitors, we observed a very high level of expertise. There were differences, of course, according to the standards and length of training conducted around the world. You can clearly see that those with longer standardised training were more polished and confident. They paid attention to the details of client care, bed set-up and maintaining a very clean working area.”
She continues: “This is the ‘Olympics’ of trade professions and the whole aspect of preparing, training, competing and then making it through regional competitions to then competing for your country on a global stage lends immensely to someone’s personal and professional development. I don’t know of any employer who wouldn’t want to hire someone who has demonstrated this level of expertise, passion, dedication and respect for our craft. Taking part in a competition is very challenging mentally and physically. This level of self-mastery in itself provides an amazing sense of accomplishment.
“Another huge plus is that these competitors also represent their country as part of a team, and this gives them opportunities to travel and expand their
Image courtesy of WorldSkills.
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