WorldSkills 2025: where soft skills make the difference
A cross-interview with Clément Emonet and Titouan-Joseph Cicorella
Engagement. Leadership. High standards. Three soft skills that guided the actions of two CNS colleagues during the 48th National WorldSkills Competition 2025, in the “Administration of Systems and Computer Networks” skill.
Clément Emonet (National Expert) and Titouan-Joseph Cicorella (Deputy Expert) recount an exceptional human and technical adventure.
WorldSkills is an international competition that showcases excellence in technical and manual trades, bringing together young talents from around the world for demanding challenges.
Engagement, Leadership, Exigence.
Giving to pass it on
“I took part in this competition as a competitor myself. I know its impact. When I was asked to contribute in turn as National Expert, it was an obvious choice. It’s a way to give back what was passed on to me.”
“People often talk about engagement, but here it’s total. We spent entire weekends fine-tuning the tasks, building the infrastructure, mapping out the run-of-show. These are hours we give on top of our job. And we do it because we deeply believe in it.”
We have implemented a skills-based sponsorship directly with the WorldSkills organisation, based on the voluntary commitment of our experts and supported by the company.
This framework frees up dedicated time (preparation, coaching, marking) and reflects an HR culture that values knowledge transfer and pedagogy as much as technical mastery.
Our goal: to contribute tangibly to sector standards, showcase professional excellence, and prepare the future of the discipline.
leadership
“Inspire without imposing”: leadership in the field?
Clément: “Being an expert isn’t just supervising. It’s bringing jurors together, creating a climate of trust, supporting young people in their performance. You have to set direction, define a framework, but also listen, reassure, and adjust in real time.”
Titouan: “There’s a genuine collective dimension. During the competition, everything goes very fast: technical issues, delayed scores, tension… We had to make quick decisions, own our choices, keep the team aligned. And stay calm, because everyone is watching.”
🧭 Leadership as lived by Clément and Titouan goes beyond the expert posture: it’s embodied in attitude, consistency, and the ability to carry a vision while staying close to the field. This is the posture CNS seeks to embed in its internal training pathways.
High Standards
Why bet on high standards?
Titouan: “We set the bar high. The tasks were designed to reflect the real challenges of the job. And we applied that same standard to ourselves. We reviewed every plan, anticipated bugs, tested the infrastructures thirteen times.”
Clément: “When you know that two days of competition sum up a year of training for the young competitors, there’s no room for error. High standards are a mark of respect—for the candidates, the jurors, and the event.”
Behind the scenes, this high standard never lets up. Once the sessions end, the jurors stay on site to mark, debate, and justify each point awarded. Some modules, being more technical, spark lengthy discussions: you have to decide fairly, defend choices—sometimes in a state of advanced fatigue. Jurors mark in threes, under supervision, to guarantee the integrity of the final ranking.
In everyday company life, high standards are not synonymous with rigidity: they are oriented toward continuous improvement, collective excellence, and pushing oneself further. It’s a human dimension that structures both client engagements and internal projects and that, here, expressed itself in minute technical details as well as in every act of support.
An extraordinary adventure
What does this adventure pass back into our internal culture?
By committing to the WorldSkills France program, CNS is not only supporting a major national event; the company is valuing its talents, supporting technical pedagogy, and embodying a managerial culture based on initiative, excellence and support.
Clément: “I hope the young competitors leave proud of themselves. And that they keep this high standard in their future projects. It will serve them for a long time.”
Titouan: “We’re tired at the end of the competition, but proud. Experiences like this strengthen self-esteem, the ability to cooperate, to perform under pressure. And they show how much you can pass on when you’re well supported.”
Minute by minute
Engagement
If the competition is lived on stage, it’s often backstage that high standards take on their full meaning. After each test, jurors stay on site to mark the modules, sometimes late into the evening. Some assessments spark technical debates among peers, as marking schemes must be applied with rigor and ethics.
On the support side, the challenge is also psychological: reassuring, remotivating, helping young people bounce back after a poor module. “In our discipline, each test is independent: the key is to reset mentally, module after module.” A demanding but essential coaching posture.
Behind the scenes
And then there’s what the public doesn’t see: team rituals, morning warm-ups, rallying cries, moments of solidarity in the hotels. A unique collective energy that bonds regional delegations and fuels the WorldSkills spirit well beyond technical skills.
This experience tests nerves as much as know-how: faced with an unexpected malfunction like a service that refuses to start for no apparent reason even though it always worked during training, jurors and coaches must keep a cool head, decide quickly, and help the young people stay focused. That’s where soft skills show their full value: reactivity, clear-headedness.
Congratulations to Clément, Titouan, Alexandre, Baptiste and Damien for their exemplary commitment: through their presence, rigor and spirit of transmission, they carried CNS’s colors high and embodied the values that unite us.