Student Conor Reid took Silver medal for Web Design at the WorldSkills UK 2017 Competition last week and students Daniel Storer who competed within the Network Systems Administrator Category and Jake Dominy within Bricklaying were highly commended for their hard work.

Conor Reid said:

“I came to Leicester College unsure about what career path to choose. I knew I was interested in computer related courses. After some thought I decided to do a BTEC in Games Development and Programming.”

“Competing at the WorldSkills UK National Finals was an amazing experience and to think that I was competing against the UK’s best young Web Developers was incredible and representing Leicester College was an honour and a pleasure.”

“After such an amazing event and securing a silver medal and a place in Squad UK, I’m really excited for the next step in this journey. I look forward to continually pushing myself to find a spot in Team UK and compete at the internationals in Russia 2019.”

“I would recommend anyone that’s offered the opportunity to take it! I know the next two years is going to be tough with the training at international level with Mike David – Squad UK trainer whom I had pleasure of meeting at the national finals but I know that Chris Seaton will always be supportive as he has been during the regional heats and national finals to help me get me where I am now and support my journey through Squad UK and hopefully into Team UK and on to represent Leicester College in Russia in 2019.”

Conor has been invited to join the international training and development programme for EuroSkills Budapest 2018 and WorldSkills Kazan 2019 with the hope of making Team UK in order to compete.

Before heading to WorldSkills UK 2017 Competition Conor was extremely excited and confident he could place in a good position. There is incredible talent coming through Leicester College and we look forward to next year.

To see a list of all winners: https://worldskillsuk.org/media/4709/the-skills-show-winners-and-squad-uk.xlsx

Record numbers of spectators, nearly 80,000, thronged the thrilling three-day interactive event organised by WorldSkills UK.

Almost 500 young apprentices, exponents of 55 disciplines – as diverse as Aircraft Maintenance to 3D Game Design, Cabinet Making, Plumbing to Beauty Therapy and Cyber Security – took part in the National Finals.

Many of the winners now have the opportunity to go forward and be considered for Team UK selection and represent his/her country in forthcoming international finals in Budapest and Kazan in Russia.

A big well done to everyone who competed!

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 College are always looking for learners that are willing to compete and show of their skills, take a look at the website: https://www.worldskills.org/ and speak to a member of staff in order to get yourself entered. 

The new cycle of national competitions opens on 1 March 2018.  Entrants to this cycle could be eligible for WorldSkills Shanghai 2021.