Hunter Valley Training Company executive director Kay Sharp AM heads to England on Saturday following her appointment as a WorldSkills International (WSI) Foundation advocate.
Mrs Sharp will visit the 41st WorldSkills Competition, otherwise known as the Skill Olympics, being held in London from October 5 to 8.
WSI Foundation was incorporated in April of this year. It is designed to extend the role of WSI beyond the competition to include advocacy and education.
October 1-8 is National Skills Week in Australia.
Mrs Sharp said the focus of her part time role is advocacy to help more developed countries and skills-development organisations to help other countries and organisations to raise skill levels globally. She said that WorldSkills Competition was the ideal place for her to advocate for the development of skills globally as people from more than 50 countries will be competing in 46 skill categories.
“I want to help connect countries to develop skills around the world because this will have benefits for the less skilled and the skilled,” Mrs Sharp said.
“Skills are not just fundamental to a person’s career but to their being and their sense of worth.”
This is not the first time Mrs Sharp’s expertise developed working at Hunter Valley Training Company has been sought internationally. In January this year Mrs Sharp went to Jamaica as part of an expert panel led by the president of Worldskills International to help the Government to overhaul the country’s apprenticeship system to ensure it meets international standards. In her thirty year career she has also done similar work in the UK, South Africa and Vietnam.
Mrs Sharp helped founding chairman The Hon Milton Morris AO to establish Hunter Valley Training Company in 1981 and was its general manager for 23 years. She has been a volunteer with WorldSkills Australia for 25 years, its national general manager for five years and a national board member. She has also served as a member of the NSW Apprenticeship Council and NSW Board of Vocational Education and Training.
Hunter Valley Training Company is Australia’s oldest and largest group training organisation. Over 30 years it has employed and trained more than 18,000 apprentices and trainees. It has apprenticeship completion rates of 85%, way above the Australian average of 50%.