WorldSkills – Day 1

I have the distinct honor of being the invited expert in web design representing the US at the WorldSkills competition in São Paulo. Many know that I am Director of Education for WebProfessionals.org and help run the state of Illinois and the US web design contests also. There is a separate website for this particular event. For those who are interested, you may even get to watch some of the ceremonies live. I have set up posts with links to the video feeds at certain times. Check here on August 11, August 13, and August 16.

WorldSkills events happen once every 2 years. Winners of our US web design competition are interviewed and one representative is selected to compete. This is a web design and development competition. Participants are expected to know web design (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and be familiar with server coding as well (for example, PHP). Libraries will be used (perhaps jQuery and Laravel).  Competitors are given a test project to solve before the start of the competition. They are then provided with a work order on site where at least 30% of the test project has been changed significantly (and they must make their changes live). This event spans a number of days. I thought I would try to share my experiences during this event (and post them as soon as possible in this weblog). I may not be able to include actual photos of the competition (photography is banned during the actual event). However, I can still share thoughts as well as views of the city and area surrounding the competition.

Obviously, one must first travel to Brazil (this entry represents that event). One does not just step on a plane. One must have a valid passport and apply for a visa from the Brazilian consulate. That process alone took over a month.Today is my day of travel. I will arrive in São Paulo tomorrow morning. They are 2 hours ahead of central Illinois. So, I will be posting from the future for the next few weeks (*grin*).

There are 43 countries participating in the Web Design competition. The US is represented by Nick Taylor. Here is a photo of Nick (used with his permission).

Photo of Nick Taylor

I will update this post with more details as they happen. I also plan to focus on the technology encountered as well as my experiences as I travel. Since many readers may not have ventured beyond the borders of the US, I thought this might make for an interesting set of entries. I have hopes of updating this at least once a day. The operative word is “hope.” I do understand that I will be extremely busy throughout this event. As always, I look forward to your comments.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial