Winning a gold medal in an international competition is the stuff that dreams are made of. And for some of the top competitors, that’s only the start. In Russia, finishing in first place also brings tens of thousands of pounds in prize money; in China, gold medallists are rewarded with a house of their own.

But we’re not talking about footballers or athletes. These are the prizes on offer for young people taking part in WorldSkills, the international contest that has been dubbed the “skills Olympics”.

The biennial event brings together the world’s best competitors aged 25 and under in a range of professions, from baking and bricklaying to mechatronics and mobile robotics. And the scale of the competition has to be seen to be believed: last year’s event in Abu Dhabi attracted 1,300 competitors from 59 countries. The emirate’s biggest open-air arena was packed with 15,000 spectators for the closing ceremony; in total, 100,000 visitors attended the competition.

A sustainable future?

Domestically, too, awareness of the WorldSkills movement is growing. WorldSkills UK Live (formerly known as the Skills Show) began yesterday; by the end of the event, more than 80,000 visitors will have travelled to Birmingham’s NEC to attend what has become one of the biggest occasions in the educational calendar.

As apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton said when she visited WorldSkills 2017: “If I could put in a bottle the essence of this competition and sprinkle it across the UK, all my dreams would be answered.”

At WorldSkills Abu Dhabi, the UK finished 10th in the medal table. In September this year, the UK’s next generation of skills stars returned from the EuroSkills continental competition in Budapest with seven medals, having gone one better, finishing ninth.

But there’s a growing sense that, as Brexit looms ever larger, the UK’s respectable performances against its global competitors are becoming more difficult to sustain, in the face of the ever-increasing funding and support provided by other nations.

Take South Korea, for instance, which finished second in the medal table last year. Its gold medal-winning competitors are exempted from military service, bringing into sharp focus the importance placed on the competition there. For members of Team UK, the best they can hope for is a handshake from a junior minister at a parliamentary reception.

Ross Megahy, a bronze medallist in mechanical engineering computer-aided design in Budapest this year, admits that “a bit of jealousy creeps in” when he hears about the treatment enjoyed by his international rivals.

“The Russians get thousands of pounds, and I’m still busting my gut at university and working part-time as a lifeguard to keep my car on the road,” he says.

Despite decades of warm words from politicians about the need to achieve a “parity of esteem” between academic and vocational education, genuine equality appears as distant as ever. So what can skills competitions do to supercharge technical education in the UK? And what benefits can be reaped from building skills competitions into a national education system?

Weeks after taking his place on the podium in Budapest with a bronze medal around his neck, Megahy is still playing catch-up with his studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, after missing the first weeks of term because of EuroSkills. This is partly due, he believes, to the fact that, unlike most of his peers, he is not an apprentice.

“I assumed companies would let [the competitors] reap the rewards and celebrate for a bit,” he says. “But I got back and, after a couple of days of congratulations, it was back to studying.” The training for EuroSkills was intense, Megahy adds. “Literally every single day, I was down at the college. Some days, the trainers had me do a full competition task, so that is six or seven hours.”

Some people would quite reasonably ask: with limited prospects of recognition and reward, why bother?

But Megahy is gearing up to do it all again, with the selection process for next year’s WorldSkills competition in Kazan, Russia, just around the corner. And research suggests that the benefits of taking part in skills contests are felt long after competitors have left the podium.

In a survey of competitors by the Edge Foundation, commissioned by WorldSkills UK (the body that represents the UK in international competitions and runs regional and national contests), 86 per cent of respondents felt that taking part had boosted their chance of getting a job.

But since WorldSkills UK is largely funded by the government (it received £8.1 million in 2016-17), is improved employability for a couple of dozen young people enough of a return to justify the investment?

Added to this, global body WorldSkills International acknowledges that its competitions have not adapted quickly enough to the changing demands of the world economy. A report published in August admitted that its “sub-optimal” competitions portfolio was “unbalanced relative to the world’s economies and labour markets for intermediate work roles, and the scope and range of occupations”.

Embedding excellence

Jenny Shackleton, standards and assessment adviser for WorldSkills International and WorldSkills Europe, acknowledges that the competitions have little wider value in their own right, other than to the individuals involved. “But,” she continues, “if we look at them in the context of a country’s curriculum and pedagogy, then they begin to have an impact.

“Finland is a great example, here. Competitions are a fully embedded alternative or addition to work experience. They use competitions in a relatively uncompetitive way; they use them as a benchmark for all skills.

“It is not so much about beating the other person, it is about putting yourself in touch with excellence, which is something that may not happen in vocational education. This has been the case in the UK, where competence has often been as far as we go.”

Austria has long been one of the great success stories of international competitions, frequently appearing at or near the top of the EuroSkills and WorldSkills medal tables. In Budapest, Austria finished second overall, behind Russia, having secured an impressive four gold, 12 silver and two bronze medals, as well as nine medallions of excellence (denoting that an individual has reached the highest international standards).

The country takes great pride in its dual training system, from which its team - led by Stefan Praschl, technical delegate for Team Austria and vice-president for competitions at WorldSkills International - is drawn.

Competitors are selected every two years, with the winner competing at WorldSkills and the runner-up heading to EuroSkills. There is no hot-housing, Praschl insists, but participants do receive team-building and psychological training, similar to that given to athletes ahead of international competitions. Funding is tight, and largely comes from the government education department, as well as employer bodies. Performing well in competitions is celebrated, says Praschl, “but the important thing is taking this back to Austria”. He adds: “We are using the competitors as role models for people going into those careers.”

However, even in a country envied across the globe for its vocational education, competitors’ status in society is low. “Look at the Austrian Winter Olympians,” Praschl says. “They ski down a mountain and are treated like heroes, and what do our young people get?” Medallists have to make do with prizes of tools or equipment, or vouchers worth around €500 (£435) to put towards further training.

How Russia reached the top

Russia - the winner of EuroSkills in Budapest - is a recent addition to the WorldSkills family and the country due to host the next WorldSkills competition. It outperformed nations with respected and established skill systems, such as Germany and the Netherlands, to claim top spot, amassing nine golds, eight silvers and two bronzes.

In recent years, Russia has carried out a radical overhaul of its skills system - at the heart of which are the WorldSkills international benchmarks.

“When Russia joined WorldSkills in 2012, we were in a place where our technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system was not having a lot of attention from policymakers, from industry and even educators themselves,” explains the country’s official WorldSkills delegate, Ekaterina Loshkareva. “It was something nobody talked about. So, when we joined our first competition as a team in Leipzig in 2013, we came almost last. It was shocking, because our trainers and experts had been sure we were training the best of the best. When we came back with that horrible result, it was like a cold shower for the system.”

This triggered an intense five-year programme of embedding WorldSkills standards into the Russian further education system. “They basically became the national standard,” Loshkareva says. “We also introduced national training centres, and trainers and students can come there and study excellence. We then started our line of [national] competitions in line with WorldSkills competitions.”

Individuals are prepared for WorldSkills through a programme of domestic competitions and intensive training. In some industries, medal hopefuls are sent to train in established WorldSkills superpower South Korea, while others attend training camps at home in Russia. “Government pays for the training of the national team, because it is a question of how they represent their country,” Loshkareva explains.

Lucrative cash prizes are also on offer for competitors who excel in WorldSkills and EuroSkills; Loshkareva is tight-lipped about the exact sums on offer, but these are believed be worth tens of thousands of pounds for the top performers.

And the support does not end straight after the medal ceremony: competitors are given assistance in finding work - usually in industry, as entrepreneurs or in training the next generation of WorldSkills competitors.

The latter route is also being developed in the UK. Kaiya Swain, an Abu Dhabi gold medallist in beauty therapy, was back in the Team UK camp in Budapest, helping her successor, Holly-Mae Cotterell, to emulate her competition win (see box, above).

Sharing her story more widely, however, has been more of a challenge. The surge in interest that Swain has experienced from customers resulted in her opening her own salon - where her medals are proudly on display. While WorldSkills is plastered across all her branding, few people have heard of it, she admits. “But once you explain [what it is], everyone is really impressed. And everyone likes to say, ‘My therapist is the best in the world.’ ”

The downside of becoming an entrepreneur is that it has been difficult for Swain to speak to young people in schools and colleges about her experience. “If I wanted to go and do that, I would have to close the salon, so I haven’t been able to,” she says.

Taking on the world

While the UK clearly has some catching up to do if it is to keep pace with the emerging breed of new global skills superpowers, progress is being made.

Recent reforms of apprenticeships, and the planned T levels - technical qualifications designed to offer a prestigious alternative to A levels, due to be introduced in 2020 - have opened up new opportunities, according to Ben Blackledge, director of education and skills competitions at WorldSkills UK.

Competition standards can be incorporated into the end-point assessments of apprenticeships, Blackledge suggests, and time spent in competitions could eventually count towards the compulsory work placements in T levels.

In some cases, WorldSkills standards are already being used to inform the content of apprenticeships being developed, according to the Institute for Apprenticeships. And, in the government’s apprenticeship funding rules, it is made clear that preparation for, and attendance at, skills competitions counts towards the off-the-job training component, which must make up 20 per cent of an apprentice’s time - a clear attempt to encourage employers to back their apprentices on the biggest stage.

The gradual spread of WorldSkills across the FE sector is a trend that should be welcomed, according to Milton. Last year, she flew out to Abu Dhabi, becoming the first serving minister to attend an overseas competition in person since 2009.

Speaking at the competition, Milton offered a succinct analogy as to the role she sees WorldSkills as playing in the wider education system: “A competition like this is like a pebble in a pond. Irrespective of how the team do, it is about making sure the ripples from this competition spread out as far as they can.”

A year on, Milton believes that the ripples are indeed spreading throughout the UK. “Funds in employers’ apprenticeship service accounts can be used to help with the costs of apprentices participating in skills competitions, where this participation contributes to learning that directly supports achievement of the apprenticeship standard,” she says.

“But competitions like these will not only help people to achieve their apprenticeships, they will also inspire the next generation to channel their enthusiasm and passion into the thousands of exciting careers that are out there.”

Julia Belgutay is deputy FE editor for Tes. She tweets @JBelgutay

‘All that training is a prize in itself’

Holly-Mae Cotterell won Team UK’s only gold medal at EuroSkills in Budapest in September, fighting off competition from around Europe in the beauty therapy category.

She returned home to floods of congratulation messages, she says. “I was absolutely spoiled. There were lots of cards and flowers, and work even organised a party.”

Returning to normality was “a bit strange, really”, she admits. “You have been on this real high, and then you go into a low as you are getting back into normal life. I had been a robot since I was selected [for Team UK] in April. I look back at the pictures on social media and think back to that moment - I represented my country and I came back with that gold medal, but it does feel a bit like it never happened, because I went back into normality.”

Surprisingly, Cotterell is yet to share her story with students at colleges and schools, she says. “I have not been approached, but it is something I would like to do. Many young people don’t know that this is available.

“I am from a really small town and, for me, getting that gold medal is just so amazing. So I would love to speak to other young people.“

Does Cotterell feel envious when she sees the lavish prizes on offer to her rivals in other countries? She remains philosophical. “It goes to show that it isn’t about the prize at the end of the day. They might be fighting more for that prize than for the actual competition. And it isn’t like I don’t get anything: all that training and the experience is a prize in itself. It would be nice to get something, but it is just is the way it is.”

WorldSkills UK: learning from the champions

WorldSkills UK Live (formerly known as the Skills Show) runs from 15-17 November at the NEC in Birmingham.

As well as hosting the national skills competitions, the event offers free careers advice from trained experts. There are also opportunities to have a go at hands-on, job-related skills across a huge range of careers, from TV production and demolition to welding and floristry (to find out more, visit bit.ly/SkillsLive).

WorldSkills UK’s “championing the way in schools” programme offers interactive skills workshops for students, delivered by “skills champions”. The champions have all competed at national finals, and many have represented the UK internationally. Now working for industry, they act as inspirational role models to future generations of apprentices and young people, sharing their stories and providing an insight into their sector (for more information, go to bit.ly/SkillsChampions).