Further education is missing a huge opportunity to learn from the expertise and success of WorldSkills’ training managers, a new report says. 

The report, “Good People in a Flawed System”, published today by WorldSkills UK, argues that embedding the experience and knowledge from those involved in the international competition would help the UK to achieve world-class standards in skills.

• Quick read  ‘Anxious hours lie ahead for those vying for a place on Team UK’
• Listen: Can WorldSkills transform education?
• Background:  How WorldSkills changed education in Russia

The report argues that the system currently is geared towards competence, rather than excellence and that the WorldSkills training managers - the people behind the competitors - could be key in bridging that gap. 

Learning form WorldSkills: eight recommendations

1. Incorporate some WorldSkills-specific time in curriculum development, and schedule team planning to utilise expertise.

2. Further education institutions should allocate WorldSkills-specific budgets for training managers to allow them to exercise their expertise and practical wisdom.
3. WorldSkills UK needs to work closely with the senior management teams (SMT) at each of the institutions where a training manager is employed to ensure that the SMT understand the training manager job role and requirements. 
4. Ensure that colleges and private training providers (PTPs), especially those that are not currently involved in WorldSkills, are part of a regional cluster to promote and develop WorldSkills opportunities. This would develop curricula and CPD opportunities to be used across all colleges and PTPs to spread best practice, knowledge and skills. 
5. WorldSkills UK needs to work with awarding bodies to ensure that training managers are involved in the development of awarding body qualifications. 
6. WorldSkills UK and training managers need to work with their individual institutions, college and PTP clusters to develop formal strategies and methods of succession planning. 
7. WorldSkills needs to develop an approach and strategy that allows for more ready mainstreaming of WorldSkills excellence into further education.
8. Following the Augar review of post-18 education, increasing investment and resources in FE is crucial.