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In the national qualifiers between April and June, the competitors take part in competitions at their local college, training centre or workplace, or enter an online contest. In July, the finalists are announced and, after a couple of months of training and development, these finalists will come together to compete in the national finals in November.
Winning a national final does not guarantee a spot in Team UK, and failing to win the national final does not necessarily mean that the international dream is over either.
Team selection
The sector specialists running the competition will select the finalists they think can succeed at the international competition to join Squad UK. The squad will then undergo more specialised training to develop their technical skills, while other skills such as attitude, commitment, motivation and how they perform under pressure will also be tested.
Squad UK will then be whittled down to Team UK – the select few who will be going to compete at the international WorldSkills Competition in Lyon, France from 10 to 15 September 2024.
Just within the construction and infrastructure industries there are a vast range of skills competitions available, from bricklaying, joinery and plumbing through to electrical installation. According to WorldSkills UK, these competitions have a real impact on those taking part, with 90% of previous entrants saying that competing helped their career progression and 86% saying their personal and employability skills had improved.
Ben Blackledge, WorldSkills UK deputy CEO, said: “We work with key players across industry, such as the Construction Industry Training Board, to identify and develop the skills and careers needed. Those partnerships help us to encourage apprentices and students to be ambitious in their pursuit of excellence, while providing them with world-class skills.
“We use international best practice to raise standards in apprenticeships and technical education and inspire young people, whatever their background, to choose apprenticeships and technical education as prestigious career routes.”
Diversity and inclusivity
WorldSkills UK has recently begun working with 11 further education colleges to deliver its new Inclusivity in Excellence programme. This is designed to inspire young people from all backgrounds, especially under-represented groups, to get involved with the skills development competition programmes.
“We take our work on increasing diversity within all our programmes seriously, and commissioned research from the Social Innovation Partnership to look at issues we face and how to best overcome them,” explained Blackledge. “As a result, we have taken steps to gain a deeper understanding of barriers to engagement with our work.”
Input from colleges
To help inspire students, WorldSkills UK is working with the colleges on how they can embed competition activity in the curriculum and how students can be encouraged to take part by holding Competition Weeks ahead of WorldSkills competition registration. Colleges will also help to shape the competition resources to make sure they are as inclusive and accessible for young people as possible.
Dee Aylett-Smith, head of national competitions at WorldSkills UK, said: “We are proud to be working collaboratively with colleges on our new Inclusivity in Excellence pilot. At WorldSkills UK we are committed to challenging stereotypes through the promotion of representative role models to show young people from different backgrounds that they can achieve their career goals.”
Blackledge added: “Encouraging more diverse talent to consider apprenticeships and technical education is vital to help widen the pools of talent available for employers and so more young people can achieve their career goals.”
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