The official opening ceremony took place at Gdańsk’s Polsat Plus Arena stadium on Tuesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The EuroSkills 2023 event will see students and workers aged 18 to 25 compete for medals in more than 40 professional disciplines, according to officials.
These range from traditional skills and trades, such as cooking, welding and hairdressing, to modern domains such as industry 4.0, cloud computing and mobile robotics, the PAP news agency reported.
Among the some 600 participants there is also a 41-strong team from Poland, officials said.
Paweł Poszytek, who heads Poland’s Foundation for the Development of the Education System (FRSE), a co-organiser of EuroSkills 2023, told PAP that the Polish team could win medals in many disciplines and would be “the dark horse” of the competition.
At the previous event, EuroSkills 2021 in Graz, Austria, young Polish professionals claimed three bronze medals, in cooking, welding and floristry, according to reports at the time.
Tens of thousands of visitors from across Poland and abroad are expected to attend EuroSkills 2023, according to the organisers.
They said "the audience will not only watch the competitors in action,” but also “have the opportunity to try hands-on job-related skills at the many ‘try-a-skill’ demonstrations."
EuroSkills 2023 was originally going to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, the PAP news agency reported.
After Russia was banned from the competition over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the WorldSkills Europe association selected Poland as the host of EuroSkills 2023, over rival offers from Germany and Luxembourg, according to news outlets.
EuroSkills Gdańsk 2023 is organised in partnership by Poland’s Foundation for the Development of the Education System, WorldSkills Poland, WorldSkills Europe, the City of Gdańsk, and AmberExpo Gdańsk.
The event runs until September 9.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, EuroSkills 2023
