UK’s Top Student in Training to be Best in The World
The UK has announced its chosen Squad for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world, at The Skills Show, which took place at the NEC Birmingham from 19 to 21 November. Included in the Squad will be five health and social care students who took part in the WorldSkills UK competition, they are;
- Jessica Duckworth, Burnley College in Lancashire
- Aine Devlin, Southern Regional College, Northern Ireland
- Jenny Smyth, Southern Regional College
- Laura-Jean King, Weston College, Weston-Super-Mare
- Georgina Ravenscroft, Five Boroughs NHS Partnership Trust
The student and trainees, all of whom are aged between 18 and 25, earned their places in Squad UK after excelling in the national finals of the WorldSkills UK Skills Competitions at The Skills Show. The competitors took part in the competitions over three days, demonstrating their skills and knowledge in front of an audience of 110,000 people who were attending the event.
Health and Social Care Squad for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017
Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The young people who have earned a place on Squad UK are worthy ambassadors and demonstrate how high quality apprenticeships and technical training can be a fast-track to a top career. I congratulate each and every member of Squad UK and look forward to hearing about their preparations for 2017’s competition in Abu Dhabi.
Held every two years, the WorldSkills international competition sees around 1000 young people, aged 18-25, from all over the world come together to compete for medals in more than 40 different skills including Electrical Installation, Welding, Web Design, Cooking and Bricklaying. WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 will take place from 14 to 19 October, 2017
Marc Jones, Director of Profiles4Care the Organising Partner for the WorldSkills Health and Social Care UK competition said: “Everyone taking part in the WorldSkills competitions works so hard and it is always inspiring. It’s good to know that we have helped in some way to support young people ambitious in their pursuit of taking their skills to the highest level. Huge congratulations to everyone who has been recognised for this commitment and invited to be part of Squad UK.”
Members of Squad UK will now participate in a training and development programme which will include the selection of Team UK ahead of WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017. The development programme will include a series of milestones and benchmarks which Squad UK Competitors must achieve to progress.
The UK is seventh in the WorldSkills rankings after winning three Gold, four Silver and two Bronze Medals at WorldSkills São Paulo which took place in August 2015. At this competition the UK was also awarded 24 Medallions of Excellence, given to those competitors in Team UK who reached the world class standard in their skill.
