Team UK – the nation’s top young apprentices and students – have returned from the EuroSkills Finals in Budapest covered in precious medals and glory.
The 22 women and men, who competed against their peers from across the Continent won 1 gold, 3 bronze and 7 medallions of excellence.
The results, which placed the UK in ninth place of 27 countries, bolstered organisers WorldSkills UK – whose mission is to accelerate careers and achieve excellence and optimum levels of skills performance.
Dr Neil Bentley, CEO of WorldSkills UK said: “This is a fantastic result for Team UK and the country as a whole. We were gunning for a top ten position and we got it!
These brilliant young people – training and preparing them to be among the very best across Europe -are the UK’s new generation of high flyers.
“Budapest was a litmus test to see how the UK might fare when we leave the European Union next year. We had an amazing result and the team worked incredibly hard, but we can’t be complacent. Other countries across Europe are investing heavily in skills development, and we need to ensure we don’t fall behind.
Governments, employers and the education sector- must embrace this success and use the energy and momentum generated here to inspire to help propel economic growth and productivity.”
We excelled in the following skills:
- Gold, Beauty Therapy (Holly-Mae Cotterell, Reds Hair Company)
- Bronze, Mechatronics (Danny Slater and Jack Dakin, Toyota Manufacturing UK)
- Bronze, Mechanical Engineering CAD (Ross Megahy, New College Lanarkshire)
- Bronze, Hairdressing (Gavin Jon Kyte, Reds Hair Company)
- Medallion, ICT Specialists (Cameron Barr, Nescot and Shane Carpenter, Nescot and BAE Systems)
- Medallion, Cooking (Nicolle Finnie, City of Glasgow College)
- Medallion, Floristry (Elizabeth Newcombe, Guildford College of Further and Higher Education and Rhubarb and Bramley)
- Medallion, Welding (Scott Kerr, Coleg Menai and PFS)
- Medallion, Plumbing and Heating (Matthew Barton, Kendal College and WE Barton)
- Medallion, Restaurant Services (Collette Gorvett, Gower College and The Ritz)
- Medallion, Joinery (Christopher Caine, Pembrokeshire College and DH Carpentry and Joinery)
