The inspiring journey of Farukh Ahmed – Tripura’s Skill Hero

WordSkills India and IndiaSkills, a prestigious skill competition are transforming the way skill-based training and education are perceived in India. A competition where dreams come true because of your skills. WorldSkills provides a platform to young competitors to compete with the best skilled people across the world. This is one competition where a plumber, a carpenter, a welder or any skilled person can represent his own country with pride and skills. Hence making it one of most aspirational skill competitions in the world. It’s also known as “Olympics of Skills”. As a result, skilling each and every individual in India has become a movement. It has impacted the lives of more than one crore people in India.

In the WorldSkills competitions 2019 which was held in Kazan, Russia, the 48 member Indian team won one Gold, one Silver and two Bronze medals along with 15 Medallion of Excellence and made India proud. Each participant has their own inspiring and hardworking journey which should be known.

To know more about the nationwide impact of the skill competition, Team NSN interacted with Mr Nihal Rustgi, Consultant, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), who shares the inspirational story of one of the skill champions of India.

Mr Farukh Ahmed is a Baker by profession. He represented the country in WorldSkills Kazan 2019 and won the medallion of excellence. He is proudly called as the “ North East Ka Raja” because of his skills Skill Hero of Tripura and has changed the skilling scenario in the state. He has been honoured as the Skill Ambassador of Tripura.

The inspiring journey of Farukh Ahmed

“The story of Tripura’s Skill Hero is one of the most inspirational stories. It is the best example of how skills can change someone’s life completely.  Getting fascinated by bakery products at a young age, he joined Lavonne Academy of Baking and Pastry Arts in Bangalore after running away from home at the age of 14. When he started working he was a regular office boy. He used to clean utensils and had no idea about baking. After a few days, the bakery people started giving him additional tasks like preheating the oven and setting the flour for the bakery products. That’s when he got curious which made him learn the baking skills on the job. After one or two years his superior realized that he had a lot of potential. Farukh was enthusiastic and wanted to learn more. His skills actually transformed his life completely. As an 8th grade dropout he had to face difficulties initially. He had to learn English as in bakery it is very important to know the raw materials, terminologies, and ingredients in detail. He learned everything with so much passion that everything started falling in place for him.

He won the IndiaSkills and got the opportunity to represent India in WorldSkills Kazan 2019. He finished at 5th position in the competition and surprised everyone with his exceptionally well performance. Farukh proved that skill can transform people’s lives by winning the medallion of excellence in the skill competition. By making skills aspirational, people’s lives can be changed. Farukh proved that people who are coming from humble backgrounds can also excel if they have the determination and the right skills.”

Related article: WorldSkills 2019: Journey of Media and Entertainment sector participants and winners  https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/worldskills-2019-journey-of-media-and-entertainment-sector-participants-and-winners/

The story of Farukh is definitely an inspiring one. Just like him there are many other individuals who have become skill champions by learning and mastering certain skills. This has actually changed their lives. We will be sharing more such inspiring stories in future. Look forward to them.