Talented young people from north-Wales recognised at skills event

Competitors from north Wales were awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals at an event celebrating the successes of Skills Competition Wales, a national programme recognising vocational talent in a variety of sectors.  The competitors have been named the best in Wales at their chosen skill.

Backed by the Welsh Government through the European Social Fund, Skills Competition Wales is a series of events held across the country, designed to celebrate vocational skills and create highly skilled, talented employees for the Welsh workforce. Due to the coronavirus pandemic this year’s competitions took a blended approach to delivery, with some competitions held online and others at the competitors’ place of study or workplace.

Benjamin White, 17, from Wrexham, who competed in the Inclusive Skills ICT category won a gold award.

Benjamin said: “I really enjoyed taking part in the competition, and pleased I challenged myself to do it.

“In my category, I had to demonstrate how to use different functions of office programming, including using features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and showing the judges how to use a variety of email features in Outlook.

“I’m currently studying Level 1 ICT at Coleg Cambria and my tutors have been fantastic at supporting and encouraging me in the competitions and helping me to prepare, including how to manage my time in a competition situation.

“In the future, I’m hoping to use my IT and maths skills to study a degree in computing at Wrexham Glyndwr University, and achieve my dream job of working in the technical design team at Airbus.

“My family were all really proud of me for winning the gold medal and how hard I worked to achieve it.”

The virtual awards ceremony took place on 13 May and celebrated the talents of competitors in the IT and enterprise, media and creative, health, hospitality and lifestyle, and engineering and technology sectors.

A second event will take place later in May to celebrate further competitor successes in additional categories, including construction and infrastructure.

The award ceremonies follow a series of regional competitions that took place between February and April which challenged students in a variety of categories and skillsets.

Paul Evans, Project Director for Inspiring Skills Excellence and Skills Ambassador for Wales said: “Skills Competition Wales offers a great opportunity for people of all ages to expand and demonstrate their skills and abilities. Winning a medal is a fantastic way to get their careers off to a flying start.

“Creating opportunities for people in Wales to showcase their talent is important as it helps ensure we are providing employers with a highly skilled generation of workers. As we emerge from the pandemic, it’s vital that the Wales has talented employees to boost our recovery.

“I’d like to congratulate all those who took part in the competitions this year and look forward to following their stories as they progress onto a bright future.”

Those who participated in these local competitions have the opportunity to engage with WorldSkills competitions at a UK level and if successful progress towards international competitions including EuroSkills and WorldSkills.

Visit www.inspiringskills.gov.wales or find out more on Facebook (@TeamWales) and Twitter (@WorldSkillsUKW)