Pair to show off skills on global stage
WORLD Skills UK has announced two competitors from Swansea will be joining Team UK at its 46th competition in Shanghai, China.
World Skills supports young people across the globe to take part in competition-led training and assessment, with the competitors from national teams testing their ability to achieve world-class standards in an Olympics-style skills competition.
The finals in Shanghai are due to run from the October 12-17, with the finalists competing to be the best in the world at their chosen skill.
The Welsh competitors are hoping to achieve medals in categories including the manufacturing team challenge and industrial electronics.
George Denman, 22, from Swansea, is competing in the manufacturing team challenge category.
He said: “The competitions have allowed me to develop and broaden my skills and have encouraged my ambition to improve as a young engineer, it’s been an amazing achievement to be chosen as part of Team UK.”
Ben Lewis, 22, is another Swanseabased competitor who has made it through to Shanghai and will compete in the industrial electronics category.
He said: “I’ve loved taking part in the competitions and the biggest highlight has to be all of the extra training that we have been given.”
“It means a lot to be chosen for Team UK and to be given the opportunity to win a gold medal. It just goes to show that I’ve improved in my skill and that I’m good enough to compete internationally for Wales.”
The selection follows several rounds of competition and an intense training and development programme in which young people from all over the country have been competing and training in different skills categories.
Running every two years, the international competition is the final stage in the World Skills journey and is the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world.
Wales has previously taken 12 competitors to the World Skills international finals in the past few years, including Kazan and Abu Dhabi.
Wales’s Minister for Economy Vaughan Gething said: “It’s fantastic to see so many Welsh competitors taking part in the international World Skills competitions. World Skills brings together some of the most creative, skilled and driven young people in Wales.”
He added: “It’s vital that we continue to invest in future generations and continue to provide opportunities for young people to showcase the exceptional talent we have in this country and bring back skills they learn to our Welsh businesses.
“I wish all of the competitors the very best of luck.”