Do Competitions in Education promote Excellence rather than just competence?

[FEnews]

FE News posted a recent video interview with Chris Jones, Director General at City and Guilds: http://www.fenews.co.uk/content/view/8631/177/

This is a video taken at WorldSkills Calgary 2009. Chris raises a point in his interview that is particularly interesting. City and Guilds are a main sponsor of the UKSkills team as they see Skills competitions promoting Excellence, rather than just competence.

Is our education system happy with just competence or should be strive for excellence?

How do you think we should promote excellence in the Further Education, skills and employability sector?

[Luc Benyon]

Excellence as a goal can only be a good thing, even if it is not achieved by all. Competitions are a great way of engaging learners (they enjoy being a part of wider activities) and some competition (with a small c) will go to enhance results. There is a real danger that we encourage learners to be too competetive at the expense of building connections with others. Working in a team is more likely to be a skill required later in life that individual pursuit. At Enterprise UK we encourage competitions but with entry in groups, hoping to enhance both ambition and team-work.

[FEnews]

Hi Luc

So you are more in favour of Euro Skills style competition (in teams), than individual's competing such as the World Skills competition?