By Celine Lim

FOR nine months this year, they willingly went without pay to train full-time for a competition.

Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduates Melissa Teo Hui Jun, 19, and Chua Ka Wen, 20, clocked nine-hour days, from Mondays to Fridays, honing their skills in giving manicures, pedicures, facials and massages, and applying make-up.

Together, they geared up to represent Singapore in the beauty therapy segment of the 7th Asean Skills competition.

Their efforts paid off in a big way.

Stunned

The girls were so outstanding among eight contestants during the competition in Kuala Lumpur, held from 14 to 16 Nov, that the judges were hard-pressed to pick between the two.

The solution? Award two gold medals.

Ka Wen said: 'We were stunned when we heard the results. It was unbelievable.

'I thought the Malaysian contestants or Melissa would win as she was one of my strongest opponents. I knew her standard as we had trained together.

'But we would have been happy for each other no matter what the results were.'

Their wins brought the total medal tally for Team Singapore, which was made up of 18 ITE students, to four gold medals and five Diplomas of Excellence.

Each gold-medal winner received $3,000 in prize money, sponsored by Singapore's Workforce Development Agency.

Team Singapore contestants also took part in the cooking, graphic design, industrial electronics, IT-software applications, mechanical engineering drawing, mechatronics, restaurant services and web design categories.

Ka Wen and Melissa had completed the one-year National ITE Certificate (Nitec) course in beauty therapy when they were invited to take part in the competition.

Ka Wen said: 'There was the opportunity cost of not being able to work and earn a salary while training for the competition.

'But it was an honour to represent Singapore. It would also be good for my resume.'

Good exposure

Agreeing, Melissa added: 'It was worthwhile even though we had to make sacrifices. Not many students get to have such international exposure.'

About 200 youths from the 10 Asean countries competed in 19 skill categories.

Contestants in the beauty therapy category were tested on their skills in six areas, such as giving manicures and massages, from 9am to 5pm over three days.

As the events were open to the public, the girls had to demonstrate their skills in front of a large crowd.

But they managed to maintain their concentration.

Melissa recalled: 'I was nervous on the first day because of all the people watching, but I just visualised everything I had to do in my mind before I started.'

It was a technique she had picked up during talks by a team psychologist, during a three-day camp for the Team Singapore participants on how to cope with stress.

Both girls said the toughest part of the competition was the body massage event.

Ka Wen said: 'We had to be very careful not to expose our 'clients' to the onlookers.

'I had to assure the model I was massaging that I would be very careful so she would cooperate with me.'

Ms Judith Chng, ITE College East's head of beauty therapy, was one of the lecturers who accompanied Team Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

She said: 'Both girls performed to our high expectations of them.

'Their achievements are testament to how far the beauty therapy course at ITE has arrived. Although still a relatively young course, it has produced world-class specialists.'

She noted that Ka Wen also recently won a gold medal in the beauty therapy category at the Worldskills Singapore Competition in October, and will be representing Singapore again in the Worldskills Competition in September next year.

This article was first published in The New Paper on 1 Dec 2008.