CAROLYN Choo and Adeline Mah made history of sorts, when they became the first ITE graduates to win a Gold medal at the 40th WorldSkills Competition, held in Calgary, Canada.

Competing in the Caring skills area, the two girls displayed model best practice and high
standards of patient care, outshining competitors from Finland, France, Sweden and the
Netherlands, among others. Both are Nitec in Nursing graduates from ITE, and are currently pursuing a Diploma in Nursing at Nanyang Polytechnic.

Record Medal Haul
Team Singapore also struck gold in two other areas – IT-PC/Network Support and Graphic Design Technology – at the four-day international competition, held from 2 to 5 September 2009.

All in, Singapore scored its best showing to date since its debut in 1995, with a total of three Gold medals – including the prestigious Albert Vidal Award for the competition’s overall top scorer – as well as one Bronze in Mobile Robotics, eight Medallions for Excellence, and a People’s Choice Award for Web Design.

Winners, All!
A delighted Mr Bruce Poh, Singapore’s Official Delegate to WorldSkills and Director & CEO of ITE, shared: “Team Singapore has delivered an excellent performance yet again. Despite the stiff competition from the world’s best skilled talents, our competitors have proven their mettle and done the nation proud. This is our best showing at the WorldSkills Competition to date. While we are happy with the medal haul, every competitor is a winner. We hope that all will continue to excel in their future careers. I would also like to put on record my appreciation to the Singapore Experts and Coaches, who have worked tirelessly to prepare the competitors for this life-changing experience.”

Singapore was represented at the WorldSkills Competition 2009 by students from ITE, Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic. All competitors had won top honours at the local equivalent of the WorldSkills Competition – WorldSkills Singapore 2008 – organised by ITE the year before.

Team Singapore’s participation at the 40th WorldSkills Competition was made possible by Principal Sponsor, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency; Peak Performance Sponsor, the Lee Foundation; and Main Sponsor, ABB Pte Ltd.