WorldSkills UK Wales

Welsh hairdressers sharpen their scissor skills

We’ve been keeping an eye on some slick scissor talent lately as a number of hairdressers across the country have been competing on a national stage.

Bradley Robinson, aged 16, who works at ‘Harper on Hair’ in Abercychan, has held a life-long dream to be a top hairdresser. He is currently undertaking a modern apprenticeship programme and is working towards an NVQ level 2 in hairdressing.

Over the past couple of weeks, Bradley has been competing in front of millions of television viewers on ITV’s This Morning. Winning the competition will see him become apprentice to the programme’s resident hairdresser, Jamie Stevens. He beat hundreds of applicants to make it on to the live show and has followed a series of complex live challenges, surviving the cut each week as a contestant is eliminated. He is now down to the final two contestants and will go head-to-head for the prize next week!

Meanwhile, on e4’s ‘Great British Hairdresser’ television programme, Joshua Rees-Hole, from Cowbridge, and James Langan, from Bangor, have been competing for the title under the direction of stylist to the stars, James Brown.  

Named ‘Young Welsh Apprentice of the Year’ in 2009, Josh, at 22, is the youngest finalist in the competition and has four years’ experience in hairdressing. Whilst Styling Director, James, aged 23, has wanted to work with hair ever since he left school and has been in hairdressing for six years; his ambition is to own a salon in New York.

Great work guys and well done on your achievements so far! Good luck to you all in your competitions! 

Help raise the profile of vocational skills, WorldSkills and skills competitions in Wales

Winning web designers scoop top three places

A great skillscompetition Wales IT event at Gower College Swansea last week! Fifteen students from colleges across Wales went head-to-head in the closely fought web design competition.

After four intensive hours of testing their skills, Daniel Thomas from Gower College Swansea was declared the overall winner. He took home a cheque for £250 and a valuable work placement opportunity with a top firm. Richard Jones, Coleg Llandrillo Cymru, scooped the second prize worth £150, whilst Merryck Reynolds-Ibell, Gower College Swansea, won £50 as runner-up in third position.

 
Congratulations to all competitors who proved their metal in this tough competition that saw them tasked with designing a website on a given theme and constructing a number of pages and functions, including animation.

Competitors will be seeking to follow in the footsteps of David Bowen who entered this competition last year and has won a place on Squad UK with a possible chance to compete for Team UK at WorldSkills London 2011 in October.

The competition was managed by Gower College Swansea with support from e-skills (sector skills council for business and technology), who also formed part of the judging panel.

Whilst the web design competition formed the focus of the event, other activities provided a showcase for the sector. IT faculty heads from across Wales held a meeting at the college and later, joined the number of visiting students to sample the latest technology on offer and listen to student presentations that formed a backdrop for the main event. A big well done to everyone involved for organising a fantastic day for all. Take a look at our photos in our flickr gallery.

Help raise the profile of vocational skills, WorldSkills and skills competitions in Wales

Top mechanics looking to progress to UK finals

Congratulations to Simon Davies, Gareth Morgan and Benjamin Morgan who took the top three places, respectively, in the recent SkillAuto competitions held at Coleg Glan Hafren.

 

The competition is growing from strength-to-strength with a record number of entries totalling almost 1,000 across the UK this year. These three lads will be hoping to join the best-of-the-best in the SkillAuto UK finals later this year, where competitors will have a chance of becoming part of the UK squad that will compete at WorldSkills Leipzig in 2013.

Coleg Glan Hafren’s Automotive Academy, which played host to this Welsh heat, is one of only eight Ford Apprenticeship Centres in the UK. The college offers over 30 automotive courses to over 600 students in total, so was particularly well equipped to stage this prestigious competition. We were also pleased to support this competition as part of our skillscompetition Wales programme.

We have some great photos of the competition on our flickr gallery and you can also view further video coverage posted on Coleg Glan Hafren’s YouTube channel.

Help raise the profile of vocational skills, WorldSkills and skills competitions in Wales

WorldSkills UK Showcase Day

Did you go along to Coleg Llandrillo Cymru on 28 February for their WorldSkills UK showcase day? It was a fantastic event that attracted hundreds of visitors, all of whom were keen to sample the ‘have a go’ activities and find out more about WorldSkills UK competitions.

Powys, Deeside and Yale colleges teamed-up with Coleg Llandrillo to run a number of the ‘have a go’ sessions, including hospitality skills, funky button-holes, floristry, hairdressing and beauty.

Take a look at our flickr gallery to see some great pictures of the event! 

Help raise the profile of vocational skills, WorldSkills and skills competitions in Wales

Enter a WorldSkills UK competition now!

Have you registered yet for this year’s round of WorldSkills UK competitions?

If not, you need to hurry – entries close on 24 March 2011.

Find out more about the competitions via our website www.worldskillsuk.org/wales

Enter now!

 

Help raise the profile of vocational skills, WorldSkills and skills competitions in Wales