Preparing to be a Workshop Supervisor by Jade Kidd

A guest post by Jade Kidd, Workshop Supervisor for Beauty Therapy, WorldSkills London 2011

At only nineteen years of age, I competed in the WorldSkills Competition held in Japan in 2007. I represented the United Kingdom in Beauty Therapy. Over time, with the highest level of training, my skills and ability grew. I went on to compete and was placed 4th, achieving a Medallion of Excellence.

After competing, I realised I wanted my involvement within WorldSkills to continue and quickly started to became addicted to WorldSkills! Now, three years later, I am still hugely involved, training future Competitors alongside my ex-Training Manager, Sue Simpson and Assistant Trainer, Jenna Bailey.

I have also recently taken on the role of Workshop Supervisor for the Beauty Therapy competitions for WorldSkills London 2011. I share this role with Jenna Bailey. She too was a past Competitor and our experience and knowledge within Beauty Therapy and WorldSkills makes us the perfect duo for the job! The role includes organising and preparing the stand ready for the competition to take place. We both visited WorldSkills Calgary 2009 to shadow the Workshop Supervisors there and it meant that we were able to have a better understanding of what is expected of a Workshop Supervisor. Long hours, commitment and organisation are just a few of the many things you need to ensure your competition is a success for WorldSkills London 2011. I can't wait!

Being part of the WorldSkills UK Alumni by Richard Talman

Guest post from Richard Talman, Jewellery, WorldSkills Seoul 2001

Late last year I was contacted by UK Skills about being a WorldSkills UK Alumni member and what it meant to me. UK Skills were in the process of working out a plan to re-energise the existing network of past WorldSkills Competitors to form a community of alumni.

They talked me through the plan to re-unite team members and bring all the teams together and I was eager to lend a hand. I have such fond and unrivalled memories of the times I had with Team UK at WorldSkills Seoul in 2001, from the first time we all met through to the WorldSkills Competition and beyond.

I made some fantastic friends all of which helped me out and vice versa, to make it through the tough tasks that the WorldSkills Competition threw at us. I made a promise to myself at the time to stay in contact with as many of them as possible and I regard a handful of them as really close friends. Unfortunately as the years have progressed and with them many of the team changing employers, telephone numbers and addresses, I have lost contact with most of them.

As part of the new WorldSkills UK Alumni plan I have been selected as an Alumni Activist for my team year. I have been asked as an Activist to find as many of my past team mates as possible, so far my search has been successful and continues.

I am very excited about WorldSkills coming to London next year. It will be a fantastic opportunity for London and will hopefully change people's perceptions of skills and vocational education. Hopefully it will also be an opportunity for past WorldSkills Competitors to reunite with their team mates and friends.

Like many people did for me, I will be there showing my support for the Competitors. Good Luck!

The WorldSkills Realisation by Chris Ridgeon

Picture of the WorldSkills Calgary 2009 Opening Ceremony, taken by Chris

My name is Chris Ridgeon and I am the Workshop Supervisor for Web Design at WorldSkills London 2011.

I first became aware of WorldSkills in 2008 when my brother won a gold medal in a WorldSkills UK event. My own involvement in WorldSkills, and specifically WorldSkills London 2011, started when I was asked to train the UK's Web Design Competitor.

However, after visiting WorldSkills Calgary 2009 to shadow my Canadian counterparts, I had a WorldSkills realisation! I knew that the WorldSkills Competitions were big events, but until you actually attend an Opening Ceremony, I don't think anyone can appreciate the scale of such a competition and the amount of people involved. Not only do we have some of the world's most highly skilled young people competing, but we have a whole network of professionals supporting them, and the event, throughout. Attending WorldSkills Calgary 2009 prior to our own event here in the UK not only brings a true realisation of the amount of work involved, but also makes you realise what an incredible experience it is for everyone!

My role at WorldSkills London 2011 is to organise the competition equipment and area where the Web Design competition takes place. For Web Design, this involves set-up of the computer systems, servers, software and other hardware required for the Competitors to work with. I think many would be amazed at the amount of different pieces of software a web designer can use and the many configuration possibilities we must account for. However, this is the same in most skills - it is the use of different tools and techniques that makes each Competitor's work interesting and unique.

At the moment, we are finalising what we call the 'infrastructure list' which sets out what tools will be available for the competition. This then gets published so we can procure the equipment and the Competitors know what they will have to work with.

WorldSkills London 2011 is going to be big and, after attending WorldSkills Calgary 2009, myself and the other Workshop Supervisors are excited and looking forward to making it the best WorldSkills Competition yet!

Work-based training more useful than higher education, says UK workforce

Job-related training has been voted to be more beneficial than higher education by the UK workforce, in helping individuals perform well in their job, research published by the National Training Awards revealed today. National Training Awards is run on behalf of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) by UK Skills.

Research performed in conjunction with YouGov reveals some of the following insights:

• Half of all UK workers feel that job-related skills and knowledge development training have been most beneficial in helping them perform well in their job.
• 52% of workers say they feel more employable in difficult economic times by learning new skills or getting extra training.
• 68% of workers think that their training and skills development are important to the UK economy as a whole.

Research likes this helps reinforce how important skills are to both the UK and the global economy, both in economic terms and also in the eyes of the general public. Skills competitions like WorldSkills London 2011 help support and promote vocational education and training which is essential.