October, 14 2004 - Washington, DC As the world’s best athletes were preparing to travel to Athens for the 2004 summer Olympics in early August, “athletes” competing in the Brazilian Knowledge Olympics strove for gold, silver, and bronze medals recognizing excellence in professional skills. From carpentry and plumbing to mechanical engineering and web design, hundreds of students from all over Brazil proved that they were at the top of their game in more than thirty professional skills areas.

In the context of this year’s competition, the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) Center in Brasilia teamed up with local partners and with other GDLN Centers in Latin America to bring part of the event to over one thousand viewers in the region. GDLN Centers around the world offer their facilities, services and interactive distance learning techniques to the development community for knowledge-sharing, training, consultation and dialogue events. With Centers in over 50 countries, GDLN helps bring together diverse stakeholders across geographic distances, time differences, and language barriers.

“By forming partnerships with local organizations that are connected via videoconference and other technologies, we can already reach audiences in every major and secondary city in Brazil,” said Fernando Félix, director of the GDLN Center in Brasilia, which is located in the resident mission of the World Bank. “In many cases, we reach people in even the most remote points of the country.” Félix represented both GDLN and the World Bank at the Knowledge Olympics.

The Brazilian National Service for Industrial Learning (Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial – SENAI) has been holding the Knowledge Olympics since 2001 for the best students of its 27 regional departments across the country. The winning “athletes” in national competitions are awarded medals and the right to participate in the WorldSkills Competition (formerly known as the Skills Olympics).

The city of Belo Horizonte hosted this year’s Knowledge Olympics. Coming together in the city’s convention center, teams grouped together by areas of expertise were challenged to complete assignments within a given amount of time. Tasks included building a radiator, designing a textile manufacturing machine for disabled users, and creating software programs. This year, the SENAI team from the state of São Paulo was the undisputed winner, with 34 medals.

Held every two years since 1950, WorldSkills was initially a Spanish national competition developed to showcase the importance of an effective vocational training system for the future of the country’s youth. The next WorldSkills competition will be held in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2005. Representing the best of their peers, hundreds of young people from 37 countries around the world will compete in the skills of their various trades and test themselves against the highest international standards.

To publicize the Brazilian Knowledge Olympics and stimulate discussions on the importance of professional development among a wider audience, GDLN teamed up with SENAI, two other Brazilian partners, and other GDLN Centers in Latin America to bring part of the event - a seminar on education and technology - to professionals from the public and private sectors in nine other Latin American countries.

Participants from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Uruguay discussed the role of professional education in sustainable development and the importance of adapting professional training to local contexts. Audiences were able to interact with panelists by sending questions via email, which were answered on air by the panelists.

“Through our partnership with GDLN, we were able to bring the Knowledge Olympics to a much wider audience,” said Antônio Carlos Maranhão de Aguiar, Regional Director at SENAI. “In the coming years, we hope to include even more people in Brazil and in the region, to share our experiences and promote discussions with other countries.”

The GDLN Center in Ecuador facilitated the translation of the seminar, receiving the satellite signal in Portuguese, translating the discussions into Spanish, and redistributing the signal to the other Latin American countries. Other GDLN partners in Brazil – the Fundação Luis Eduardo Magalhães in Salvador and the Centro de Ensino Tecnológico in Fortaleza – transmitted the seminar to the northeastern states of Bahia and Ceará, respectively. SENAI also broadcast the seminar to its own national network.

Based on the success of the broadcast, and as a committed partner of SENAI, GDLN will continue bringing the Brazilian Knowledge Olympics to points all over Brazil and Latin America. Stay tuned!