WorldSkills UK Wales

World Class Practitioners

What does it take to be world class in your field? Well, Dean Jones, Cliff Williams and Gareth Evans are three Welsh lads who have achieved this status and can certainly tell you a thing or two.

All three have undertaken a rigorous training and development programme with UK Skills in which their skills and performance have been tested to the limit. Gareth made it on to the WorldSkills UK Squad for Calgary, whilst Dean and Cliff formed part of the ultimate Team UK that competed for our country at WorldSkills Calgary 2009.

This weekend, the professional achievements of all three were honoured further as they were awarded the prestigious City & Guilds Licentiateship (LCGI) Senior Award at an annual graduation ceremony in London. Cliff and Gareth are pictured here looking very good in their caps and robes!

Traditionally, the Licentiateship Senior Award is given to people who have worked in the industry longer but thanks to their training, Dean, Cliff and Gareth have progressed to full professional standing in a relatively short time. Congratulations all!

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

The Big Leap – Entrepreneurship Challenge!

If you are aged 18-30 and have a business idea with high growth potential, this WorldSkills UK competition is just for you. Enter by 30 April 2010.

Managed by Striding Out, the challenge is for entrepreneurs who are embarking on a business planning journey. Ten finalists will have the opportunity to harness their skills and participate in an intensive three-day entrepreneurship bootcamp. With expert trainers and apprentice-style activities, the bootcamp will provide participants with a wide range of new business skills and knowledge to achieve business success.

This competition is called ‘The Big Leap 2010’. The winner will receive a cheque for £500 and a year long mentorship package from an experienced entrepreneur. Take the leap and enter now!

Find out what Tom Latchford, founder of Raising IT, had to say about his bootcamp experience. In 2009, Tom won the WorldSkills UK Gold Award for UK Entrepreneur of the Year.

What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? Well, Peter Jones, the Dragon’s Den entrepreneur, is certainly equipped to offer advice. We found his ‘10 rules for entrepreneurial success’ interesting. Why not take his interactive quiz to discover if you have a tycoon mindset!

(Acknowledgements: thanks to UK Skills for use of image)  

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

Accounting Aces

On the 31 March we pulled up the driveway of the Georgian mansion, Sketty Hall, in Swansea. Set in its own grounds with ornate Italian gardens, it is an inspiring location and we were there for a very special occasion – the final of Wales’ first ever Accountancy skills competition.

Organised and hosted by Swansea College as part of our skillscompetition Wales, the unique setting added to the excitement. We could feel the tension in the air as the teams of competitors took their seats. Each group was tasked with a number of challenges that an accounting technician would face in the course of a ‘regular day at the office’; such as, processing sales and purchase invoices, petty cash and payroll transactions and handling errors and journals. As well as testing their computer skills, the competitors were also judged on their ability to work as a team, demonstrating their communication skills and ensuring professional conduct.  

Armed with a laptop housing the accounts, a notebook and a calculator, we watched along with lecturers and supporters as the teams set to work. Entrants included learners from Swansea, Gorseinon, Bridgend and Pembrokeshire Colleges, Coleg Gwent and Coleg Llandrillo Cymru.

The gold medal went to the team of David Sadler, Lucinda Murphy and Joshua Broom from Coleg Gwent (pictured here). Obviously delighted, the team commented on how pleased but surprised they were to win saying “the other teams seemed more confident than us and seemed to be of a very high standard. It has been a fun day and has helped to give us more confidence in our abilities”. They each took home a cheque for £50 along with winning a one day work placement at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Cardiff.

Congratulations to the winning team and well done to all competitors! With thanks to Swansea College for leading the way in developing this competition and for a memorable day in an environment that leaves a lasting impression.  

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

Web Design Whiz

Websites have come a long way since the first text-based designs in the early 1990’s; and they continue to change rapidly with the advancement of supporting technologies.

Flash animations, HTML5, CSS3, Web 2.0 and now web 3.0 – for the non-expert, it’s difficult to keep up!

Luckily, Wales is working to ensure that we nurture these important skills and develop our own future web design experts.

On 24 March, we saw some of this work first-hand at the final of the skillscompetition Wales IT Web Design competition. This was the first time that Wales has held a challenge of this kind, which was organised and hosted by Swansea College. 

Participating colleges included Coleg Sir Gâr, Swansea, Gorseinon, Pembrokeshire, and Bridgend. Competitors were tasked with animation and website construction activities which took place over a gruelling 6½ hours.

It was an exciting and closely fought competition making it difficult for the judges to make the winning decisions.

Ultimately, David Bowen from Coleg Sir Gâr, took the gold medal, (pictured here with Nick Couling, Director of Faculty, Engineering and IT, Swansea College). The silver medal went to Kerryanne Tolhurst, Swansea College, and Daniel Jones, Gorseinon College won the bronze medal.

Congratulations to all competitors, to Swansea College and to all other participants for making this a highly successful event.

We are currently working on editing some video footage of the competition which we will upload to YouTube soon. Subscribe to our blog or YouTube channel to make sure you keep up-to-date.

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

Can You Dress To Impress?

A window that is… SkillVM is the WorldSkills UK competition for students and those working in the retail industry. It’s an opportunity for you to demonstrate your visual merchandising creative and technical skills in a live competition environment.

Teams are invited to design a window display based on a given theme through submission of mood boards and a written proposal. Designs are judged by a panel of experts with the top scoring designs shortlisted to create their displays at a live heat. Winners from the heats go on to compete at the UK final which takes place this year at the In-Store Show, the UK’s leading retail exhibition, at Olympia in June 2010.

The SkillVM competition is organised by Skillsmart Retail who successfully launched this competition last year, (take a look at the video below for a round-up of this event). Now in its second year, the competition is going from strength-to-strength. Enter online by 16 April 2010 for your chance to benchmark your skills against the best visual merchandisers in the country.

(Acknowledgements: Thanks to UK Skills for image and DNA for use of video)

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