Students Conor Reid, Daniel Storer and Jake Dominy will be representing Leicester College at the WorldSkills UK 2017 Competition at the NEC this weekend (16 November 2017). After competing at regional level the students came through the competition to represent Leicester College at national level.
Meet our Competitors
Name: Conor Reid
Category: Web Design
“I am really excited to compete for a place on Team UK at WorldSkills UK 2017. It was an amazing feeling to hear my name called out in first place at the regional competition. I am now aiming for a place at the WorldSkills final in Russia. It is a fantastic opportunity and I would encourage anyone to try next year.”
Update: Conor went on to win Silver in his competing category.
Name: Daniel Storer
Category: Network Systems Administrator
Daniel made the finals last year and has made the finals this year too which is a great achievement.
“I feel over the moon to be selected to compete once is an achievement however to be selected twice to compete in the WorldSkills final is a big achievement. To say I am really looking forward to competing again is an understatement. I was speechless when I was told, as this year I am aiming for gold. I have been practising endlessly to ensure I will perform at the best of my ability.”
Update: Daniel was Highly Commended in his category.
Name: Jake Dominy
Category: Bricklaying
“After being asked to consider competing by my tutors, I decided to go ahead. I am currently an apprentice with construction company William Davis and have learnt quite a lot of skills while attending College and on the job. I am excited to showcase the skills I have learnt as well represent the College and my employer at this level of competition. I have received incredible support and hope to get the gold.”
Update: Jake was Highly Commended in his category.
What is WorldSkills?
Dr Neil Bentley, Chief Executive, WorldSkills UK says:
“WorldSkills UK is all about improving the prestige of apprenticeships and technical education, to inspire more young people to consider these as career routes and get off to a better start in work and life. But it takes more than words to achieve this; it’s what we do that works. We help young people set off in the right direction through experiential careers advice activities and access to guidance from peer role models. We engage thousands of young people in skills competitions right across the UK, where they improve their technical and employability skills to the highest possible national standard. Then we select the best in the UK and put them into an accelerated development programme to compete with the best in the rest of the world. We create medal-winning, world class skills champions: young, confident role models, from all backgrounds, who go on to inspire others to follow in their footsteps. Our experience means we have the know how to fast track the development of the skillset and mindset in young people that employers want and the economy needs. We can do this because we are a partnership between governments, business and education. We collaborate to develop our home-grown skills, improve social mobility and drive up training standards to the highest level to help boost UK productivity and competitiveness. Ultimately we champion young people because they carry our future on their shoulders. Join us in helping more young people go further, faster in work and life.”
WorldSkills UK brings together apprentices and young people from across the UK to compete to be the best in their chosen skill – first in national competitions and then as Team UK in international skills competitions. Competitions encourage today’s students and apprentices to be ambitious in their pursuit for excellence, while equipping them with lifelong, world-class skills.
WorldSkills UK trains a team of our national champions, Team UK, who represent England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in international skills competitions. Just like the Olympic Games, these competitions give our brightest talent the chance to compete against thousands of apprentices and learners from over 72 countries to win gold, silver or bronze medals in more than 50 skills.
In 2017, the UK came tenth in the international medal tables. It was the 44th WorldSkills Competition which took place from 14 to 19 October 2017 in Abu Dhabi.
WorldSkills UK Local Heroes
Local Heroes are supporters of WorldSkills UK who drive their organisation’s involvement in our competitions, helping us to equip young people with lifelong, world-class skills.
Every year, thousands of young people are registered to take part in WorldSkills UK competitions, but their participation is only possible through the support of committed Local Heroes who promote the benefits of competitions to students, apprentices and senior management. These Local Heroes also give their time to support competitors, putting on additional training competitors and offering pastoral and moral support.
We’re excited to announce that Chris Seaton Technical Learning Co-ordinator from Business and Computing at Leicester College, has been given recognition as a Local Hero.
“It was an absolute honour to hear that I had been recognised as a WorldSkills Local Hero and I am ever so grateful for this acknowledgement for the work I have done with WorldSkills.
I am also supporting two finalists this year, one in the Network Systems Administrator category and one for the Web Design category. The learners have equally also put in tremendous effort taking them into the national finals!
It’s been a privilege to be in a position to support the learners. We are very proud of their achievement too.”
See a full list of Local Heroes here: https://www.worldskillsuk.org/directions/our-role-models/local-heroes
The Skills Show
The Skills Show taking place between 16-18 November at the NEC Birmingham helps prepare young people for the opportunities in work and inspires them to play a valuable role in tomorrow’s skilled workforce.
Sign Up – On Saturday 18 November parents can bring their children to The Skills Show to meet some of the largest employers in the UK. Independent careers advisers will also be on hand to help the young people sign up for more information on careers and apprenticeship opportunities.
Visitors to the show can also ‘Have a Go’ at hundreds of careers. It is the show’s unique interactive experiential careers advice which gives young people the opportunity to really discover what jobs they might enjoy, what sort of career they could become passionate about and what skills attract them to join the world of work.
You will find Leicester College in the Construction & Logistics section, on stand H6-H1, our construction team will be on the stand with a variety of activities surrounding plumbing, brickwork and electrical skills.
Boo tickets: https://www.worldskillsuk.org/directions/our-events/the-skills-show/book-the-skills-show
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