History

Introduction

The ASEAN Skills Competition  (ASC) is the biggest vocational education skills excellence event in the ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations – ASEAN) region that truly reflects global industry. This biennial skills competition was initiated by an agreement of ASEAN member countries at the ILO/APSDEP Meeting in Chiba, Japan from 7^th – 17^th Septembers 1993. The competition aims to promote and upgrade skills standard in ASEAN region to an international level, as well as to motivate youths to develop their skills to meet international standard and current technology. The competitors represent the best of their peers and are selected from skills competitions in ASEAN member countries and regions. They demonstrate technical abilities both individually and collectively to execute specific tasks for which they study and/or perform in their workplace.

The member countries have initially specified the rules of the competition as follows:

1. The competition will be held every two years and the member countries will take turns to host by voting resolutions

2. ASEAN member countries have agreed to use the latest Test Projects of the latest WorldSkills Competition (a biennial skills competition with about 78 member countries) for the ASC Test Projects. WorldSkills test project is drafted by experts in skills areas who are leaders from different industrial sectors. Test projects’ element reflects the latest technology and skills needed and are amended before every competition. Thus, using WorldSkills test project as a basis for developing ASC test project will enable youth of ASEAN member countries to stay up to date with the world.

3. Competitors must not be over 22 years old. Each country can send 2 competitors for each skill area for 3 days of the competition (In the span of 15-18 hours)

 

Objectives

The objectives of the ASEAN Skills Competition are:

To promote the development of quality vocational and technical and work values among the youth and skilled workers;

To foster technical cooperation in vocational/technical education and training between member countries;

To encourage close cooperation between governments, industries, employers’ and workers’ organizations, and vocational training institution; and

To provide a recognition for work excellence and develop new generation of highly skilled workers.

 Previous ASEAN Skills Competitions

ASC	Host Country	Month & Year	Skill Areas
1	Malaysia	August 1995	6
2	The Philippines	December 1996	10
3	Thailand	March 2001	12
4	Indonesia	October 2002	12
5	Vietnam	September 2004	14
6	Brunei Darussalam	September 2006	12
7	Malaysia	November 2008	19
8	Thailand	November 2010	21
9	Indonesia	November 2012	22
10	Vietnam	October 2014	25
11	Malaysia	April 2016	25