Shadowing our international counterparts by Chris Ridgeon

In my last post I mentioned briefly that I attended the most recent WorldSkills Competition at Calgary in 2009. It was a great experience and I would like to share some more of that with you.

The purpose of my visit to WorldSkills Calgary 2009 was to shadow the Workshop Supervisor of the Web Design competition, as this is my role for WorldSkills London 2011. Canadians Ryan Jacobs and Mike Ryan were responsible for the setup and running of the competition as Workshop Supervisor and Assistant.

I cannot believe how valuable this experience was! When you are in meetings about running a world class competition two years in advance, it is very hard to visualise exactly how much is involved. For example, I didn't realise we would be up 'till 2am supporting the systems on our area while the final parts of marking were completed!

Ryan and Mike did a fantastic job throughout the competition, they were great hosts and were able to give me all the information that you just could not find out without being there. Although running a WorldSkills Competition is no simple task, you feel a lot more confident when you see it playing out two years before your own event. I also learnt a lot about Canada that you probably wouldn't learn if you went on holiday there - it was a great experience!

At WorldSkills London 2012 the UK will be hosting the Competition and our counterparts from WorldSkills Leipzig 2013 will be shadowing us to prepare for their own WorldSkills. WorldSkills really is a fantastic collaboration of people from all around the globe, it was great working with the Canadians and I look forward to working with the Germans in October 2011.

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!