WORLDSKILLS 2011
SHOW OF HANDS
In October, the world’s best young vocational learners gathered to compete at WorldSkills London 2011. Tim Rodie went along to join in the biggest ever global celebration of vocational training
>
The 2012 Olympic Games is still months away, but if you’d taken a train a few miles south of the Stratford Olympic Village in early October 2011, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the Games had come early. Crowds of wide-eyed
competitors, cheering supporters clad in their nation’s colours and packs of journalists are sweeping into London’s ExCeL Exhibition Centre ready for the fi rst day of the highly-anticipated 41st WorldSkills competition. Touted as the ‘Vocational Olympics’, WorldSkills is
a biennial competition that brings together the best young skilled professionals from WorldSkills’ 51 member countries and regions. The 2011 competition is the biggest ever, with 944 entrants competing in 46 different trades. With 200,000 visitors attending throughout the four days of the competition, WorldSkills takes on a far larger role than that of a simple contest – it is a showcase that underlines why vocational skills are so important to the world’s economy. On the opening day, primary school children from local London schools have the chance to try many new skills that could take them down a vocational path later in life – from roof thatching, virtual-reality welding and brick-laying to fl oristry, confectionery and web design. In the midst of her exhibition stand that lets primary-age
children create glitter-and-glue website layouts, Anna Selway, Lecturer and Advanced Practitioner at Highbury College in Portsmouth, explains the reasoning. ‘It’s important that kids get these vocational experiences at a young age as it raises their aspirations, and we’re preparing a generation of children for hands-on careers that we don’t yet know about,’
www.cityandguilds.com/broadsheet
she says. And it’s not just the very young who can try their hands at new skills. Have a Go activity areas can be found throughout the arena where visitors can ‘have a go’ at everything from building a chair to chocolate welding.
UNBRIDLED ACCESS
The actual competitive aspect of WorldSkills takes place over four days, with some trades working towards a fi nal end-of-competition project, while others require daily presentations of the day’s work. For spectators, the competition provides a rare chance to get up close with a diverse range of skills often hidden away from the public eye. Competitors are on display at all times – even the welders, who are shielded behind red screens with a live video link to TVs on the spectator side. This gives unbridled access to the business-building skills that support salons, garages and kitchens across the globe. The fact that competitors have transported their stickered and work-worn tool chests and equipment to the contest
The UK won a total of fi ve gold medals, two silver and six bronze – all but one of the winners have completed City & Guilds qualifi cations
BROADSHEET 178 | WINTER | 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40