BD competitor Nafisa gets ‘Best of Nation Award’ at Kazan WSC

Publish: 6:26 PM, August 28, 2019 | Update: 6:26 PM, August 28, 2019

DHAKA, – Bangladeshi competitor Nafisa Sadaf Anchol received the ‘Best of Nation Award’, for the first time in the country’s history, in the World Skills Competition (WSC) that ended at Kazan in Russia on Tuesday.

Two competitors from Bangladesh – Tanjim Tabassum Islam in Patisserie and Confectionery and Nafisa Sadaf Anchol in Fashion Technology – performed very well in the competition and earned appreciations from the organisers and assessors, according to a press release issued here today.

They successfully completed all the stages and made outstanding and better performances compared to the competitors from many countries, said Md. Faruque Hossain, executive chairman of the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA) under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Besides, two Bangladeshi experts — Shaheen Afroz in Patisserie and Confectionery and Afsana Ferdousi in Fashion Technology — were selected as judges and assessors.

Bangladesh’s participation in the World Skills Competition in Kazan, the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, is a historic event, said PM’s Principal Secretary Md. Nojibur Rahman, who attended the event as the head of Bangladesh delegation.

After founding the NSDA, he said, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina personally encouraged the Bangladesh delegation to take an active part in the competition.

“This symbolises her strong political will to take skills development issues to a higher level in line with her commitment to create greater opportunities for the youth population in the country,” he said.

Nojibur said Bangladesh now has got the opportunity to participate in WorldSkills International in China in 2021 and in France in 2023 as well as the WorldSkill Asia in Abu Dhabi in 2020.

“In maintaining connectivity with the world market, Bangladesh will continue to develop skills nationally and show competency in world competitions simultaneously,” he added.

Senior officials of PMO and NSDA attended policy-level exchanges as well as constructively engaging with leaders from Worldskills International and other member countries.

The private sector leaders were engaged in networking and identification of skills areas where Bangladesh will have both competitive and comparative advantages not only in the future competitions but also in global markets.

Russian media highlighted Bangladesh’s participation in Kazan WSC. The participation of Bangladesh delegation at the WSC has opened up a new horizon of opportunities in the days ahead, they said.

The NSDA chief said, “Now our plan is to organise a countrywide skill competition under NSDA and its partners to identify talents and prepare for future competitions and global markets.

“The government announcement to make technical and vocational education compulsory from the school level from 2021 will take us to a new height,” he said.

“We’re all grateful to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her continued visionary leadership to provide skills training to our young population,” he added.

Faruque Hossain hoped that the next WSCs in Shanghai, China in 2021 and Lyon, France in 2023 will hold out more opportunities for Bangladesh youth population.