Vietnam will participate in WorldSkills London 2011, a competition designed for young people from 50 countries to show off their prowess in a variety of professional skills, next week.

"Participating in the competition offers an opportunity for the Vietnam team to see the world's leading technical skills for themselves and learn from them," said Duong Duc Lan, deputy head of the General Department of Vocational Training under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), also the delegation leader.

The statement was made at a meeting held by MoLISA on Sept. 27 to see the national delegation off to the event's 41st edition. WorldSkills is considered the global "skills olympics".

The competition is held in a member country every two years to demonstrate the youth's excellence in skilled professions.

According to Lan, who was Vietnam's delegation leader in their previous two trips to the event in 2007 and 2009, the country have yet to earn a medal but managed to perform quite well despite its limited experience in comparison to other competitors.

Thirteen young Vietnamese competitors, who are students of colleges, universities and vocational training schools, will compete in 12 professions ranging from bricklaying and cooking to web and graphic design.

The competitors have been trained by experts since mid-April in preparation for the competition.

MoLISA leaders said this time they expected the team to earn at least one medal and promised to offer rewards to those with good achievements in the competition./.