The Dutch team trains abroad!

By Skills Netherlands

All Dutch Competitors are involved in a professional training trajectory, in preparation of WorldSkills London 2011. Not only are they trained within Dutch borders, they also get great opportunities to head abroad, to catch a glimpse of international competition and rivalry. A total of twelve Competitors have been heading abroad for the last month, Finland, Canada and Australia being their destinations.

On the 1st of May Jowin Boerboom and Ruben van Gemert headed to Finland, to participate in the Taitaja, an annual Finnish Skills competition. The two Dutch WorldSkills Competitors had a blast and learned lots about international competitiveness. One thing became perfectly clear: the Netherlands has a ‘superstar’ in their midst. 18 year old Jowin finished in first place, leaving all competition flabbergasted.

On the 31st of May, a total of five Competitors flew off to Quebec Canada, to compete in the Skills Canada National Competition. Nick Bressers (aircraft maintenance) described their trip as following: ´it was a fantastic experience for all of us. Way different than all Dutch competitions we´ve been involved in, thus far. We learned a lot, it was a good test for London.'

The last five lucky Competitors to head abroad are: Tim van den Heuvel, Edwin Mabelis, Bart Biemans, Kevin Peters and Dennis van Werkhoven. These fortunate five headed towards sunny Wollongong, Australia on the 1st of July, to compete in the Global Skills Challenge 2011.  

All of these ´roadtrips´ are being held as part of the training trajectories all Dutch Competitors are going through, hoping it will make the candidates stronger on an international level, get them a greater sense of team spirit and of course: letting them have a great overall experience!