The Vocational Training Olympics are organised by the international organisation WorldSkills, the purpose of which is to promote vocational skills in the context of Vocational Training. There are currently 52 member countries. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Autonomous Communities, supports Spain’s participation in WorldSkills. It organised the national competitions, which took place in the month of April.
The Olympic winners formed the team that represented Spain at the international competition that was held in Calgary (Canada) in September.
The runners-up will form the Spanish team for the European competition to be held in Lisbon (Portugal) in 2010.
The first international Skills championship was held in Spain in 1950. It was followed by the setting up of WorldSkills in 1953, at Spain’s initiative and after Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom joined to form the International Vocational Training Organisation, with headquarters in Madrid.
The last international competition to be organised by and held in Spain was in 1975. After a short interval, in 2005, Spain re-entered the competition under the name of SpainSkills and competed again in the International Olympics that were held in Japan in 2007.
Spain’s presence has been maintained in details like the Albert Vidal prize for the best competitors, in memory of the man that founded the competition, the Spaniard Francisco Alberto Vidal.
Since September 2008, following a proposal by the Dutch delegation, as well as the national and international competitions, there is also a European competition, known as "EuroSkills".
