2020 has been a challenging year but we have adapted to continue with our drive to mainstream excellence in skills systems across the UK.
Our highlights include:
• delivering careers advice to 115,000 registrants who signed up to our Spotlight Talks with BAE Systems
• we increased our online support for all those who registered for our competitions programme this year, including webinars on employment, wellbeing and entrepreneurship
• we held a virtual celebration in partnership with City of Glasgow College to recognise all those involved in our work in Scotland
• working with NOCN we brought together key people from the FE sector to discuss how we can work together to give technical education the prestige it deserves
• we were delighted to hear that some of our WorldSkills Kazan team were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
• we launched our Inclusivity in Excellence pilot programme, aiming to increase engagement from diverse communities with our development programmes
• following a tough selection process, we announced the UK’s best apprentices and students who have joined our training programme for WorldSkills Shanghai in 2022
• the Centre of Excellence was launched with NCFE. Twenty colleges were selected for the first year as we work with educators to support them with embedding global best practice in their training programmes
• experts from around the world joined us for our first ever International Skills Summit to discuss how technical education can drive a global, skills-led recovery
• we launched a collection of essays and case studies looking at what excellence in skills means for our partners in education, governments and industry
• our Skills Development Hub launched. Free to access, it contains tools and resources that utilise our unique insight into global best practice in skills development
• working with our colleagues in WorldSkills China, we delivered a two-day best practice exchange supported by the UK Government, including a virtual electronics competition, with the UK apprentices winning Gold and Silver awards.
Thank to all our partners for their continued support. We look forward to working together in 2021 to continue raising standards in apprenticeships and technical education, so more young people get the best start in work and life.
