WorldSkills UK Wales

Floristry in Focus

Team UK’s Joe Massie won the bronze medal in floristry at WorldSkills Calgary 2009. Whilst our eyes were focused on the ultimate competition, a little closer to home Wales’ own budding floristry stars were showing their skills recently.

Charlotte Cooke, from Abergavenny and a Coleg Gwent student, won the gold medal at the final of the UK Skills Floristry competition. She competed in the over two years’ experience category.

Another Welsh competitor, Amy Doyle from Kinmel Bay in Conwy, won the bronze medal in the under two years’ experience category.

Competitors are required to work with a previously unseen selection of flowers, foliage and sundries to create a variety of floral designs, including wired pieces, bouquets, body adornments and room decorations.

We’ll be keeping our eyes on these talented individuals as their skills blossom further!

 

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

Have You got What it Takes?

To compete at the very highest level and represent your country is a huge privilege and takes years of honing your skill.

Competitors in the UK would have progressed through a series of local, regional and national competitions that are run every year. Each competition stage gets tougher but the experience is highly valuable – you meet great people whilst you learn and improve your skills!

If you compete in a UK final and do well enough, you may be asked to attend a Squad UK selection event. Successful candidates at this stage are then invited to undertake an intensive skills based training programme (which usually lasts 16 weeks). Throughout this training, you are assigned a training manager who is a UK technical expert in their field.

Following this process, individuals are chosen for Team UK – the actual team of competitors who will represent their country at the WorldSkills International level competition. The WorldSkills Calgary 2009 Team UK was chosen from several thousand competitors across the country!

Should you make it as far as this stage you will then undergo even more skills based training to refine your skills to world-class standards.

Local skills competitions will launch across Wales and the UK in October 2009. Watch this space to find out more and be in with a chance of representing your country at the next international competition when it comes to WorldSkills London 2011.

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

Welsh colleges are urged to back Worldskills

COLLEGES and training providers are being urged to enter a major competition to promote the region's skills around the world. 

Dr Haydn Edwards has been appointed as the first WorldSkills Champion for Wales and says he is confident Wales will be well represented in the UK team to compete in the WorldSkills competitions when they come to London in 2011 – if colleges and training providers pledge their support. Dr Edwards, principal of Coleg Menai in Bangor, was appointed WorldSkills Champion for Wales last summer after being nominated by fforwm, the organisation representing further education colleges and institutions in Wales. 

Colleges, training providers and sector skills councils will be holding competitions in a wide range of skill categories this year. 

Following regional heats, winners of the Welsh finals in each category may also be invited to compete again at the WorldSkills UK finals for the chance to represent the UK at the world's largest skills competition. 

WorldSkills is held every two years, with 51 countries competing in over 40 different vocational skills. WorldSkills 2009 is being held in Calgary, Canada, in September and WorldSkills 2011 will be held in London. "

Wales really must get its act together to ensure we punch above our weight at UK level and in the forthcoming WorldSkills competitions," said Dr Edwards.