November 5, 2014. A concept for WorldSkills CIS was presented in the course of a round table discussion on training blue-collar cadre for the CIS and the Customs Union member states; the discussion was part of WorldSkills Hi Tech business agenda, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports.

‘We asked the Sverdlovsk Region team to assist in the elaboration of the concept for a new-format championship. The important thing is to ensure experience-sharing among the CIS member states. We’d like to come up with a set of unified professional standards for these countries and to make Russian the lingua franca for the professionals living there,’ says head of WorldSkills Russia Pavel Chernykh.

For one, the CIS-wide concept would mean national WorldSkills championships could be held in each and every one of CIS member states, as well as the annual WorldSkills CIS one. The new-format competition might actually be organized in Russia as soon as next year.