“We have, today, been informed by the boards of WorldSkills and WorldSkills Shanghai 2021 that as a result of the ongoing impact of Covid-19 globally, the very difficult decision has been taken to postpone WorldSkills Shanghai until 2022.
“The UK remains committed to competing at WorldSkills Shanghai and we will continue to support our Squad UK members, their employers, colleges and training providers and the wider training team, who have been working tirelessly to prepare for the competition, so we can deliver a medal-winning performance for the UK in 2022.
“Today’s announcement also means we will bring even more to the fore our growing international work to harness insights from ongoing collaboration with the 85 other countries in the WorldSkills’ global network to continue to share best practice in skills development to help mainstream excellence in training across the UK. This will enhance, as set out in our Covid-19 plan, our ongoing work to increase our digital resources so that we can enable more young people and educators access to world-class training methods to reach the higher standards employers need as we continue to face into a challenging and changing economic landscape.
“As we reset our sights on WorldSkills Shanghai for 2022, we are confident that Team UK will once again step up to demonstrate excellence in skills on the world-stage and showcase the UK as a world-class place to invest, do business and create jobs.”
Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann OBE, Chief Executive of WorldSkills UK
