A 19-year-old youth has emerged the hot favourite among youth with his car-painting skills fetching him a ticket to represent India at WorldSkills International Competition 2015, to be held at Sao Paulo, Brazil, from August 11 to 16 this year.
Dinesh Kumar Prajapati, an ITI-diploma holder in Ahmedabad, was declared winner in the car painting skills at the finals of WorldSkills India, 2015, held recently in Delhi. Apart from him, 20 other youths were selected for their skills in 18 different categories to represent India at Brazil.
The biennial competition, popularly known as Skill Olympiad, is the only international competition for fostering development of skills among youth.
The selection of Team India, which was drawn over an 11-month period starting from April 2014, saw in all 1050 participants from across 22 unique skills. The winners for three more skill categories will be made on a later date, an official said here.
In all, a total of 113 rounds were held (85 regional, 27 national and one final round) before the winners were selected by a jury of 58 member-experts from different industries.
WorldSkills India is organised and conducted by National Skill Development Corporation (NKDC) with the support of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). This year WorldSkills India competition was also supported by the newly-created Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of MSDE said India would pitch to host the WorldSkills Competition in 2021 as the venues for the 2017 and 2019 competitions have apparently been decided.
Interestingly, this year, while a woman was seen competing as a welder, some men were doing so in the beauty and wellness section, Dilip Chenoy, Managing Director & CEO, NSDC, said.