A recent pledge by Maureen Houssein-Mustafa, CEO of Australasian College Broadway, will see the hairdressing and beauty college raise $60,000 over two years for two entrants to compete in The International WorldSkills competitions, the largest bi-annual vocational skills competition in the world.
Ms. Houssein-Mustafa (pictured with WorldSkills Australia CEO Mark Callaghan) said, “It’s absolutely imperative that we support Australian youth in their training and education, as they represent tomorrow’s industries. We hope that others in our industry and across all vocations will follow suit to provide ongoing financial support to these talented individuals so that we can continue to strive for excellence.”
The 41st WorldSkills competition will be hosted in London in October, 2011 with over 1,000 international entrants compete simultaneously in 50 skill categories. From May 7 to 9 this year in Brisbane, over 500 of Australia’s best will battle for a gold medal in 50 trade and skill categories and a chance at the national title, and the opportunity to compete in London next year as part of Team Australia Skillaroos.
The Australasian College Broadway has not only pledged to raise funds for the two winning entrants in Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy, but it will also provide additional training and mentoring by a number of top educators to ensure that they compete at the highest level on the international stage in 2011.
Last year, the Australasian College Broadway raised funds and assisted in the training of Ms Jessie-Lee Gladwell, the Australian WorldSkills entrant in the Beauty Therapy category. Jessie went on to win gold for Australia in the 40th International WorldSkills Competition, Calgary 2009.
Mr. Mark Callaghan, CEO WorldSkills Australia said: “This generous pledge of support from Maureen Houssein-Mustafa and the Australasian College Broadway is a tremendous sign of the college’s commitment to skills excellence in hairdressing and beauty therapy. It will provide WorldSkills Australia with full funding for the progression of national competition winners in the hairdressing and beauty therapy categories to the WorldSkills International competition, allowing the competitors to focus solely on their training and preparation. Support such as this will help WorldSkills Australia continue to showcase our high level of skills nationally and internationally, thereby developing awareness of and promoting respect for skills excellence.”