Aidan Jones, Executive Director of WorldSkills London 2011

Hello, I’m Aidan Jones, Executive Director of WorldSkills London 2011 and my job is to lead the dynamic team that will deliver the 41^st WorldSkills Competition in London in 2011. We are very excited about the challenge of putting on such a large and exciting event and with less than two years to go, our plans are really beginning to take shape.

A large part of the success of any event is observing and learning from similar events and this will be the closest thing we have to a rehearsal. Many members of the WorldSkills London 2011 team have recently come back from WorldSkills Calgary 2009 in Canada. Our Canadian hosts were extremely helpful, allowing us all to get ‘behind the scenes’ to see both the triumphs and the occasional obstacles. I know that, as well as soaking up the atmosphere of a fantastic event, what we learnt in Calgary will stand us in good stead for producing the most exciting, inclusive and inspiring WorldSkills Competition ever.

You can see photos and videos from our trip to Calgary on our website and I look forward to seeing you at WorldSkills London 2011!