WorldSkills hopefuls battle it out for places on Team UK

Competitors from across the UK gathered in Manchester for the selection event to try and win a place at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi
9th April 2017, 10:03am

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WorldSkills hopefuls battle it out for places on Team UK

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At The Manchester College, three car bonnets are being prepared for a painted motif of Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue. In another corner, three young aircraft-maintenance competitors have completed work on an RAF helicopter and are anxiously awaiting assessment of their work.

Meanwhile, down the road at Trafford College, four patisserie and confectionery students are creating large sugar structures, just down the corridor from where jewellery competitors are working on gold pendants.

It’s the week of the selection event to find out who will make up Team UK for the WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi this autumn. Last week, 70 current and former apprentices and college students gathered at colleges across Greater Manchester to fight it out for the opportunity to represent their country in the flagship international skills competition.

For the competitors, this is the culmination of years of training and thousands of hours spent honing their skills. Now, with the competition over, all they can do is wait for the announcement on 21 April to find out whether they have done enough to earn a place on the plane to the United Arab Emirates.

A prime example of the sheer determination to secure one of those coveted places is floristry competitor Danielle Scandone. The EuroSkills silver medallist from Gothenburg cut herself so badly early on in the team-selection contest that she required hospital treatment. As soon as she was bandaged up, she was back at the competition to try to win her WorldSkills place.

Three years’ preparation

Not everyone has a rival to compete with, though. In auto body repair, Andrew Gault only has a guest competitor from India for company. But he still has to meet the minimum WorldSkills standards to claim a place at the biennial international contest.

Frazer Minskip, the WorldSkills UK expert in the field, says that Gault has been “the perfect competitor”.

“He has committed to every training session, has gone into his college on Saturdays and Sundays,” he says. “That is a WorldSkills competitor. He communicates really well and is happy to say he needs help.”

In addition to training from the skills experts, the young competitors also receive support from performance coaches to ensure that they are ready for the stress of taking to an international stage.

This is an edited article from the 31 March edition of Tes. Subscribers can read the full article here. This week’s Tes magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here

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