Hunter Valley Training Company (HVTC) CEO Robert Fuller reports that the company’s executive director Kay Sharp AM was at the 41st WorldSkills Competition in England last week following her appointment as a WorldSkills International (WSI) Foundation advocate.

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.

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 while working at HVTC has been sought internationally. In January she 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 30 year career she has also done similar work in the UK, South Africa and Vietnam.

Mrs Sharp helped to establish HVTC 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.