Finland excels in WorldSkills 2009 championships
Skills Finland Jaana Pakanen ja Tiina Ahola celebrate their bronze in practical nursing.Team Finland 2009 won five medals in the youth WorldSkills 2009 championships in Calgary, Canada. The two gold-winners were Ville Rämö from Kuopio, in masonry category and Elina Salminen from Pirkkala in hair-styling. Marianna Luoma won silver in fashion and clothing category. Finland's three bronzes were won by Harri Jalonen in car painting and Jaana Pakanen and Tiina Ahola in practical nursing category.
In addition to winning a gold medal Elina Salminen was also chosen from her team for the "Best of Nation"-listing. The 19-year old graduate from Tampere College competed assiduously even during her studies. She has worked together with the multiple Finnish Championship hair stylist Petri Sipiläinen in his PS-hair studio since 2006.
Bricklayer Ville Rämö, who graduated from Savo Consortium for Education had a very tight competition with colleagues from Korea, Italy and Australia. In the end he stood on the winner's rostrum with his Korean co-competitor.
- I'm well pleased with my performance. It could have been worse, commented the well composed young bricklayer straight after his performance.
Finnish expertise did not end with medals in WorldSkills 2009-competition. Young Finnish experts performed up onto diploma level in 14 categories.
The World Skills-competition, which is held every second year, was held now for the 40th time. Team Finland had 45 participating top experts, who competed in 39 categories. The competition had altogether 900 competitors from 51 countries. The four-day event attracted about 150,000 visitors.
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