Winners chosen for the 2013 Grand Prix for Development of Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons!

Grand prix (METI Minister's award)

Osaka Institute of Technology, representing the Kinki Region for the presentation entitled "Fundamental competencies for working persons developed in small factories in the town of Naniwa (Osaka) ― endeavors by student engineers who devote their youth to manufacturing"

Outline of the activity:
The program aims to have students develop as engineers who can work actively on-site, by utilizing the knowledge they acquired at the university in practical situations and experiencing the rigor of manufacturing in the real world, through the process of joint research with local small- and medium-sized enterprises. Machinery parts that were difficult to manufacture with existing methods were successfully made through repeated trial and error.

Decisive factors in winning the award:
It was highly evaluated that the students continued their efforts to find solutions to problems with no clear answer until they were satisfied, and significantly developed fundamental competencies for working persons. It was also evaluated highly that sharing expertise at the actual site of manufacturing by formulating a team with members of different specialized fields resulted in the improvement of students' technical skills.

Semi Grand Prix

Nihon University, representing the Hokkaido-Tohoku Region for the presentation entitled "Making roads (michi) a familiar (michika) place ― road development through cooperation between local residents and students"

Ishikawa Prefectural Nursing University, representing the Chubu Region, for the presentation entitled "Trace of the creation of a healthy town through inter-generation exchange ― health is something created by everyone, not only by oneself"

Forum's Special Prize

Tama University, representing the Kanto Region, for the presentation entitled "'We Love Japan Project' in the seminar by Professor Sadayuki Murayama"

Awards winners of the 2012 Grand Prix for Development of Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons

Eliminating rounds were held in the second half of November 2012 in the six regions across the country and eight representatives (including two from each of the Kanto and Kinki regions) were chosen. On March 4, 2013, in Nikkei Hall, one winner of the Grand Prix, two winners of the Semi Grand Prix and one winner of the Forum Special Prize were chosen at the contest "2013 Grand Prix for Development of Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons," determined on the basis of the votes cast by the judging committee (Grand Prix and Semi-grand-Prix) and those present at the event (for the Forum Special Prize).

Changes occurring in the environment that surrounds businesses and the growth of young people require today's working people to have basic abilities that are commonly required in all types of jobs, such as the "ability to find problems for creation of new value," the "ability to effectively work toward solutions to problems," and the "ability of teamwork to unite different cultures." METI defines such abilities as "Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons" and is working to develop and propagate these abilities.

* Websites related to the fundamental competencies for working persons

• Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons page on the METI website (in Japanese)
• Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons website by Nikkei, Inc. (in Japanese)

March 5, 2013

Human Resources Policy, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau