Section three: UK Insights

What are the UK’s strengths in this skill?  

Focus on hand skills; this is critical as it is the foundation of furniture and cabinet making. Improvement could be realised by use of WorldSkills Standard Assessment Guide to raise standards. 

There are some very high-end manufacturers within the UK and working closely with them can dramatically raise standards as seen in other countries.  

What are the UK’s areas for development? 

Incorporation of WorldSkills Standard Assessment Guide (SAG) into the training system to enable students to understand the standards required by industry which in most cases is not clearly set for students. 

Improvement in training of planning and production skills, best done by incorporation of competition into the curriculum.   

Stronger links to industry where training can better reflect local industry needs, currently awarding body standards do not always reflect local needs, although this does need to be a balance to ensure broad training as a single employer will focus solely on their needs.  

Unfortunately, TVET in pre 16 education is extremely limited, so when they start on a post 16 TVET course they have very limited experience, whereas for more academic skills they have many years of training at school.  

What are the key skills that UK Educators need to develop in their students in readiness for national competitons, industry / employment? 

National Competitions: 

• preparing equipment/sharpening of tools  

• practising and assessing to a standard 

• planning skills, development of an understanding to produce an item with time estimates 

• time management 

• self-evaluation of practical task. 

Employment/Industry: 

• planning skills, development of an understanding to produce an item within time estimates 

• time management  

• self-evaluation of a practical task.

Final thoughts:  

• setting expectations high even for the simplest task 

• early and repeated exposure to excellence within the industry is critical as most students’ understanding of what this is, is very limited 

• development of production and planning skills (inhouse competition can do this well) 

• build in opportunities for more structured self and peer assessment with clear expectations of standards 

• more and repeated training on sharpening of tools.