Nursing students from several provinces will be competing over the next few days to represent the country in an international competition testing students’ health care skills.
Eight young participants in the international World Skills competition are being put through their paces in Durban.
They are competing for a place on the national team that will go to the 46th International World Skills Competition in Shanghai, China in October. The event is known as the Olympics of Skills and is the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world.
It is the first time that South Africa is taking part in the competition that is held every two years. The country will be competing in the health and social care category. The nursing students come from TVET colleges and nursing colleges.
Samkelo Zondo from the rural KwaMaphumulo area north of Durban, is excited about the opportunity to hone her skills.
“I do want to win this competition and if I win I will be very happy. This competition inspires a lot of people. I will be inspiring my classmates where I come from and even my family and the community where I come from will be very happy to see this competition,” says Zondo.
Minenhle Nyali from Verulam is looking forward to an opportunity to compete on an international level.
“I believe that I can represent South Africa in China as one of the competitors in the international world skills competition.” says Nyali.
In the competition, the students are placed in a clinic, as well as a hospital setting, where they are required to deal with patients.
Sthembiso Mhlongo explains says, “I am excited to participate in this competition and it will help to improve my skills. We are being reminded to involve the patients and the nursing care. The competition is not differ from what we are doing the wards.”
Dalisu Khumalo says it was difficult to prepare for the competition under COVID-19 restrictions.
“I think it was very challenging because as we had to go to virtual learning and it was difficult for me as I was a new student. But it taught me to be independent and which was a very exciting and learning experience,” says Khumalo.
World Skills South Africa CEO, Elaine Brass says they are happy with the performance of competitors.
“They will be measured against other countries and in the provincial competition we have to follow the World Skills standards. Already our competitors have been exposed to world skills standards and they will be definitely quite ready to compete at the international level. So far, we are happy and we have four competitors that are competing this morning and they are doing extremely well,” says Brass.
