As ambassadors of Swiss vocational education, we were thrilled to get to see the amazing young talent represented at the event, and experience first-hand their passion, knowledge, speed, creativity and dexterity at work. It’s no wonder that SwissSkills chose the hashtag #Swissmadeexcellence to describe the competition and the skills of the participants.
This year at SwissSkills, excellence was in the air at the 87 competitions, where roughly 150 types of professions—bakers, chefs, service workers, entrepreneurs—were represented. As official gold partners of the competition, our colleagues were on the ground floor, eager to see what was cooking in the competitions and ready to share Global Swiss Learning’s mission to SwissSkill’s audiences.
On Wednesday, Master-chef Patrick Diethelm, our Head of Culinary Excellence, and Brigitte Weber, our Training and Course Coordinator, attended the “Service Competition” as guests, during which competing chefs had precisely 2 hours to prepare a full course meal while the service competitors had the task of serving and presenting it to the guests: everything from starters, to main course, to dessert and coffee.
On Saturday, Marco Mehr, our Global Culinary Expert was a part of the tasting jury at the SwissSkills final. Members of the tasting jury do not know the candidates and do a blind tasting. The tasting scores, along with the kitchen jury’s scores, are combined and the participant with the highest score becomes the winner.
“I am always fascinated by the passion and pride of the young people. You can feel that there are so many people who love what they do,” Mehr says about the competition.
“There is always a great atmosphere at such competitions, because many young people from all over the country meet and all have the same goal: to deliver a good product. But you also feel that it's not only about the result, but also about the community, about getting to know new, interesting and like-minded people. Many friendships are formed through this kind of competition. I think for a lot of young people this is the beginning of a great career.”
As the competition drew to a close on Sunday, we could feel the excitement growing, as final scores were tallied and champions were named, and we were reminded of the power behind vocational education: how it transforms lives through experience.
Our mission at Global Swiss Learning, to enable Swiss vocational education, is to do just that. We know what it means to want to grow your talent, to improve your skills through education, and to strive to be the best in your profession.
We would like to congratulate the 2022 SwissSkills champions for all their hard work and passion, as well as all those who participated and showcased their skills this year. Well done, and we’re looking forward to seeing you at WorldSkills!
