Growing up in Brazil, Leonardo Fonseca Rodrigues had one dream: to travel by aeroplane. Flying to a different country was magical, thrilling and, most of all, completely out of reach – his parents simply couldn’t afford to make Rodrigues’ dreams a reality. 

And so, when he turned 15, he started to search for a job – any job – to save the money himself. Ten years later, Rodrigues has a role that sees him fly all over the world with 11 other young adults, all dedicated to championing vocational education internationally as part of the WorldSkills Champions Trust. 

His journey into TVET came out of chance – unlike many of his Champions Trust peers, he didn’t know what he wanted to do from a young age. When looking for a job to fund his travelling dreams, he applied for an apprenticeship at jewellery company H Stern. 

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“I made my first piece of jewellery and I fell in love. I knew from that moment that I wanted to make jewellery forever. One of the most awesome feelings is when I design and produce a piece and when it’s done. The client comes in and tells me they think it’s beautiful and that they plan to hand it down to their children,” he says. 

“I think, wow I made that. It’s an awesome feeling. It really means a lot to me that people would pass my jewellery down to their children.”

'I wanted to be the WorldSkills guy'

While working at H Stern, Rodrigues was offered the opportunity to go and study at a vocational jewellery college in Brazil. At the college, Rodrigues noticed a fellow student who went above and beyond with his studies.

“I saw that there was a crazy boy who used to stay there at least eight hours a day training for competitions that happened at school, state and national level. Someone mentioned that one day, he might go to an international WorldSkills competition,” he says. 

“I was like what?! I want to be that guy, the WorldSkills guy. I went to the coordinator of the course and I said, how can I be that kind of person? I want to be a competitor. I saw that this whole process of training for this competition could increase me as a professional. I would learn a lot of techniques, and I said I want to do that.”

Years of hard work followed and having succeeded at the state and then national skills competitions, Rodrigues earned a place on Team Brazil for WorldSkills 2015, which took place in São Paulo, Brazil. 

Competing in his home country at the WorldSkills competition was an experience like no other – some might have felt extra pressure to win a medal on home soil, but not Rodrigues. 

“Brazilians are very warm and vibrant people so I could feel all of that vibe and energy. I didn’t feel pressured because I was at home, I was eating my hometown food and I was feeling good and comfortable. I could feel this spirit of the team cheering for me,” he says. 

Rodrigues was aiming for the gold medal, but on the first day of competition, one mistake threatened everything. 

“I was very nervous and I made a mistake with my welding. I went crazy and I was like, what am I going to do? I’m not going to be the gold medallist anymore!

“My psychologist said: ‘Leo, you made one mistake, are you going to allow this one mistake to damage all your four days of competitions? What you’ve made is already done, just do your best from now on.’”

Rodrigues did his best – and won the gold medal for Brazil.

“It was the most amazing experience of my life. I jumped and I screamed, and everyone was watching me and all of the Brazilians were jumping with me, and it was amazing. I can’t put it into words,” he says. 

Keeping a cool head

It could have been a very different story. The pressure of WorldSkills is so intense, and often when competitors make a small mistake it can have massive repercussions on the rest of their competition. Keeping a cool head when things do go wrong is crucial, says Rodrigues.

“Every competitor that reaches the WorldSkills level, they have been training for years, they are there because they are good. What makes a difference is if you are mentally healthy. You have to control your emotions, you have to control your feelings and the ones who can do that properly are the ones who are at the podium. 

“Everyone knows the techniques they are there because they are the best in their countries. The ones who can control themselves they win, if you are not emotionally secure you make a lot of mistakes,” he says. 

The ability to be able to correct mistakes quickly has since seen Rodrigues through some tricky times at work. 

“If something goes wrong at work and the client is knocking on the door to have this jewellery, it’s like: how am I going to fix it? Quick, I need to do this and this. That is something I learned from the competition and use it every day,” he says. 

Working life for Rodrigues looks very different today than it did pre-WorldSkills. After the São Paulo competition, Brazil was hit by one of the worst economic crises in the country’s history. No one was buying jewellery, and therefore – despite just having been crowned the best young jeweller in the world – no one would give him a job. 

“I said if no one will give me a job, I will open my own door, I founded my own jewellery brand. In the middle of the crisis, I found a window of opportunity,” he says.

Rodrigues knew that people would still buy jewellery – if it was at the right price. He had met a lot of important people through his WorldSkills journey and had the connections he needed to start his own company. He began making jewellery for an international audience but at a much lower price. Rodrigues customers don’t pay for a brand, they pay for quality. 

He now has three people working for him – and his business is thriving. He says that he would encourage anyone who works for him to go through the WorldSkills experience if they are eligible. 

“What I’ve learned in this process, I wouldn’t learn anywhere else. I could do 5 years of college and I don’t believe I would learn as much as I have through WorldSkills,” he says. 

Flying high 

And now Rodrigues is passing on his enthusiasm for the movement through the WorldSkills champions trust. He says he applied because he felt that he needed to give back to the institution that gave him so much. 

“Everything that I’ve received, which has been a lot, it’s not just a competition but culturally and financially it opened many doors for me to be an entrepreneur and have a job. I really hope I can help future competitors and future generations have the same experience,” he says. 

And another bonus of being part of the trust: he gets to fly all around the world. 

“Of course, this is one of the best things. I really enjoy flying. I don’t care about being 12 hours in a plane, I really enjoy myself, I read a book, I watch movies, I chat to the cabin crew, I just love flying,” he says.