Skills Plus are the skills competitions for people with (labour) disabilities. No one is judged on his or her disability – only talent counts! The competitions are based on the successful Skills Talents concept of WorldSkills Netherlands (professional competitions for students in vocational education). Skills Plus competitions are designed specifically for a target group, ranging from people with physical disabilities to people with mental disabilities. A truly inclusive competition is organized, which means that talents of different levels, who cope with all kinds of disabilities, compete in teams.

The Skills Plus competitions are competitions for teams and guarantee an unforgettable experience! Both individual and team skills play a part in the competitions and reflect the current situation on the labour market. The organizations behind the idea who helped develop the 2016-2017 competitions pilots are now expanding and welcoming new members! The Second European Skills+ Finals in 2021 will include contestants from the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Croatia, Greece. We have also invited partners from other European countries who will observe the competitions and will hopefully transfer the experience by starting Skills+ Competitions during the next competition cycle in Portugal, Lithuania, Hungary, Cyprus and France.

Skills Plus is a direct result of the Erasmus+ project Paraskills Competition. For more information on the Paraskills Competition project you can visit www.paraskillsproject.eu.

The National Skills Plus competitions in 2016-2017 were held in 6 different European countries (Bulgaria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands) and the best teams from each country have competed against each other on the 16th of March 2017 in the Amsterdam RAI (Netherlands) to select the best European team!

And the winners from the first ever European Skills Competitions for people with disability are:

Hospitality and catering – The Netherlands (gold)
Green jobs – Germany (gold)
ICT – Czech Republic (gold)
Electrician – Czech Republic (silver)

Curious about these Skills Plus Competitions?

Or you can watch the video of the very first European Competition which we held in Amsterdam in 2017!