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Mr. Yacine Oualid Launches the Official Start of the 2025 Skills Olympics Provincial Qualifiers

Today, Mr. Yacine Oualid, Minister of Vocational Training and Education, presided over the official launch of the provincial qualifiers for the 2025 Skills Olympics from Algiers. These qualifiers are being held across the entire national territory over a period of four days, as part of a nationwide event aimed at promoting youth skills and fostering a culture of excellence.

This event, organized by the Ministry, is part of a broader strategy to enhance vocational training through a national competition based on international standards set by WorldSkills. It aims to encourage a spirit of competition across various technical and vocational disciplines.

A total of 5,772 candidates are participating in the provincial qualifiers, divided into three main categories:

  • Apprentices: 35.1%
  • Trainees: 40.5%
  • Graduates: 24.4%

The competitions cover a wide range of technical and vocational specialties across six major fields:

  • Manufacturing and Engineering Technology
  • Information and Communication Technology
  • Construction and Building
  • Transportation and Logistics
  • Creative Arts and Fashion
  • Services

The events feature diverse skills including mechatronics, welding, cloud computing, cybersecurity, vehicle maintenance, industrial design, cooking, hairdressing, hospitality, jewelry making, and specialized trades like water technology, metal construction, and mobile app development.

These specialties were carefully selected to align with international standards and national labor market priorities, emphasizing skills that blend practical innovation with technical knowledge. Some competitions are specially reserved for youth under 25, particularly in digitally-oriented fields such as digital construction, cloud computing, and industrial design technology.

In terms of participation by region, Algiers leads the list, followed by Oran, Boumerdes, Tlemcen, Batna, Blida, Skikda, Setif, Bejaia, and Constantine.

In his opening speech, the Minister emphasized the significance of this event in fostering a culture of hard work and positioning vocational training as a strategic choice for building a competent national workforce capable of keeping pace with economic and technological changes. He underlined that this initiative is part of ongoing efforts to modernize the sector and promote a positive competitive spirit to elevate the quality of training to international standards, while also reinforcing the societal value and appeal of skilled trades among youth.

Mr. Oualid also called on training institutions to participate actively in the qualifiers by preparing qualified teams capable of excelling in the upcoming stages.

The Minister announced the national competition schedule as follows:

  • Provincial competitions: April 2025
  • Regional competitions: September 2025
  • National finals: November 3, 2025, in Oran

To support the international dimension of this initiative, the Minister also announced Algeria’s first-ever participation in the African Skills Olympics to be held in Zambia, as well as the anticipated participation in the WorldSkills Competition scheduled in Shanghai, China. These participations mark a significant step forward in integrating Algeria into the global map of vocational excellence.