The Finnish national skills competition Taitaja took place in Kuopio 3.–5.5.2011. The event attracted more visitors than ever: almost 67.000 people visited the competition during three days.

All together over 400 students competed in the event. There were 41 skills categories and 3 demonstration skills categories in the Taitaja2011 competition in Kuopio. There were also 4 categories for students with special needs, so called TaitajaPLUS competition. In addition to national skills competition there were also other events: seminars, education fair, and Taitaja9 competition in craftsmanship for 9th graders of lower secondary schools.

 Taitaja is the biggest annual event within vocational education and training in Finland. It is organised every year in different town or city, in order to involve different parts of Finland in skills activities.  Local education provider organizes the event in co-operation with educational institutions and private companies.

– The thing that especially pleased me this year, was the fact that there were over 500 partners involved in the competition, says Competition Manager Pekka Matikainen from Skills Finland. – Half of them were private companies, and other half was educational institutions. This shows that the local business really sees the benefits of taking part in the event.

Pekka Matikainen praises also the organization of the competition. – There was no complains made to the jury about the evaluation, which tells me that the competition was organized extremely well and carefully.

In Finland there is a tradition to choose the best competitor, Taitajien Taitaja, a person who not only has won the gold medal in his/hers skills category, but is also a good example of fair play and commitment. This year the honour was given to Teemu Mikkonen, who won IT PC / Network Support. Teemu also won a gold medal in EuroSkills Lissabon 2010, in Office ICT Team / Open Source Specialist. During one year he will be the ambassador of skills competitions. To ease this task, he has a sponsored car in his use for one year. Last year winner drove over 40.000 kilometers with her car. How excellent commitment for the skills promotion!

Muhamed Alali, who is going to participate in Abilympics in Soeul, took photos in demonstration during the competition.

teamfinland: TeamFinland 2011 going to WorldSkills London 2011 and International Abilympics 2011 Soeul, was presented in the closing ceremony.

Ambassador of the skills competitions, Taitajien Taitaja, gets a car to his use for one year. Caring was popular among the audience, there was always dozens of people watching the competition.