WHAT’S NEW?
WORLD CLASS
Paul Doran, Lecturer at Southern Regional College and WorldSkills UK Training Manager, Wall and Floor Tiling tells us how he is combating the challenges of training tilers during COVID-19.
These are unprecedented times for the construction industry. As organisations refocussed their efforts on introducing and navigating new ways of working, I faced a challenge of my own: How could I continue to train apprentices for the WorldSkills Competition, known as the Skills Olympics in lockdown?
The UK has a strong track record of competing in WorldSkills, with our team of apprentices winning 19 medals at the event held last year in Kazan, Russia. As the WorldSkills UK Training Manager for Wall and Floor Tiling, I knew that with the EuroSkills and WorldSkills events due to take place next year, any break in training would be disastrous and could mean the difference between winning and losing a medal.
I was determined that despite the challenges that the construction industry is currently facing, I would do whatever it takes to keep training. This required thinking differently about how I could prepare my squad to continue to develop their skills remotely.
Selected after excelling in the WorldSkills UK Nationals Finals at LIVE last November, I am working with four extremely talented young tilers: Dylan Calvert, Odhran Connolly, Dylan Gillanders who all attend Southern Regional College and Morgan Swift who attends City of Glasgow College. When I first started working with them, I was particularly struck by their professional attitude and commitment but like many other trainers I was conscious that without our face-to-face training sessions, one of the biggest challenges I needed to overcome was keeping them motivated and engaged
— 08 —
with the training. I also couldn’t ignore the personal challenges they were each facing around the uncertainty of their apprenticeship and future employment.
Before I moved my training online, I needed to first check that all my apprentices had access to tablets. I know from my role as a lecturer at Southern Regional College this has been a challenge. With everyone online, I looked at how I could work with them to build on their technical skills. With the competitors not being able to access materials and tools, we discussed in our online sessions the specific skills and techniques that underpin international best practise in tiling. This approach has helped them understand the competition in a more comprehensive way. Morgan told me for the first time she really understood how WorldSkills prepares young people to thrive at the highest level in work, rather than just succeed in competition. An understanding of this will not only help them when they are competing but will support their career progression from apprentice to a senior position on site in a relatively short amount of time.
Our participation in the WorldSkills Competition is only possible because the generous support of our sponsors: Norcros Adhesives, our main sponsor, and N&C Tiles, BAL Adhesives, The Tile Association and the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers. They have been fantastic as we have had to adjust to
training in the challenging times and they will be ready to supply materials when we are able to train face to face again. All of the sponsors support WorldSkills because they know training for the competition enhances a young person’s apprenticeship. The event is also the only global platform that exists for us all to promote our industry to the next generation of construction workers.
Our training for EuroSkills Graz 2021 and WorldSkills Shanghai 2021 is not what I initially planned, but I am confident that despite new ways of training, Team UK will deliver a performance on the international stage that we can all be proud of.
www.worldskillsuk.org www.tomorrowstileandstone.co.uk
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
