WorldSkills UK has announced over 400 students and apprentices who will be battling it out across 64 disciplines to be crowned national skills champions. This includes:
| Automotive Body Repair | Lewis | Hastings | Cardiff and Vale College |
| Automotive Body Repair | Harry | Cooper | Cardiff and Vale College |
| Automotive Body Repair | Joel | Windsor | Cardiff and Vale College |
| Automotive Body Repair | Craig | Kernohan | Riverpark Training |
| Automotive Body Repair | Simon | Sloan | Riverpark Training |
| Automotive Body Repair | Tiler | Moorcroft Jones | Grwp Llandrillo Menai |
| Automotive Refinishing | Ryan | Lowrey | Blackpool and Fylde College |
| Automotive Refinishing | Stephen | Halsall | Blackpool and Fylde College |
| Automotive Refinishing | Sion | Lewis | Cardiff and Vale College |
| Automotive Refinishing | Tom | Venn | Cardiff and Vale College |
| Automotive Refinishing | Callum | Roberts | Cardiff and Vale College |
| Automotive Refinishing | Dominic | Duance | Cardiff and Vale College |
| Automotive Technology | Luke | Merchant | Weston College |
| Automotive Technology | Alexander | Mills | Babcock Training Ltd |
| Automotive Technology | Olly | Brown | Lanzante |
| Automotive Technology | Liam | Ward | True Test Motors Limited |
| Automotive Technology | Ian | Robertson | Fife College |
| Automotive Technology | Damian | Tchorzewski | Edinburgh College |
| Heavy Vehicle Technology | Abhaydeep | Gulati | Ford & Slater |
| Heavy Vehicle Technology | Andrew | Hill | Motus Commercials |
| Heavy Vehicle Technology | Daniel | Buckingham | Skillnet |
| Heavy Vehicle Technology | Jignesh | Khimani | Skillnet |
| Heavy Vehicle Technology | Mark | McAdams | Fife Council |
| Heavy Vehicle Technology | Daniel | Parker | Adams Morey Ltd |
Following 2020 and a year without competitions, over 3,000 people registered to take part in the UK-wide competitions back in March. The finalists will compete for gold, silver and bronze from 9-19 November, with the winners crowned at a ceremony hosted by TV presenter Steph McGovern from her Packed Lunch studio on Friday 26 November.
This year sees the finals taking place in locations across the UK for the first time. From the Industrial Robotics final in Ballymena, to Heavy Vehicle Engineering in Cardiff, Cyber Security in Lanarkshire and Web Design in Somerset, the 25 venues cover all four corners of the UK.
Ben Blackledge, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, WorldSkills UK said: “I want to offer my congratulations to all those that took part in our programme this year, especially the finalists. After a year without competitions due to the pandemic it was really encouraging to see so many people back involved this year.
“Our competitions and competition-based development programmes equip apprentices and students with the lifelong, world-class skills that will help increase UK productivity and competitiveness.
“We are really excited to be taking the show on the road this year with finals hosted by colleges, training providers and employers across the UK. We hope seeing the finals will inspire young people at those venues to keep developing their technical and employability skills and recognise what can be achieved by developing excellence through skills.”
The WorldSkills UK competition-based development programmes are designed by industry experts and enhance the practical skills and knowledge taught on training courses by assessing an individual’s employability attributes against set criteria in a competitive timed environment.
The programme has a real impact on those taking part, with 90% of previous entrants saying their career progression improved after competing and 86% stating their personal and employability skills had improved.
Full details of the finals and the names of all finalists can be found Page not found | WorldSkills UK