Students prepare for UK skills final

Two Monklands students will be among the New College Lanarkshire contingent heading to next month’s WorldSkills UK final in Birmingham.

Airdrie woman Hayley Shanks, 21, will be taking part in the category for media makeup: body; while 22-year-old James Kilgour, of Salsburgh, is one of four IT support technicians from the local institution who will be participating.

They will take part in three days of intensive competition in front of 70,000 spectators – with 500 top students and apprentices taking part and aiming for the ultimate prize of going on to represent the UK at the 2019 WorldSkills contest in Kazan, Russia.

Hayley and James are among an 18-strong contingent from New College Lanarkshire, the largest single group from any one organisation in the UK.

Fellow students will be competing in specialist categories for 3D digital game art, fashion and photographic make-up, business software, web design, network systems administration and computeraided design.

College head of faculty Matthew Smith, who is a member of the WorldSkills steering group for Scotland, said: “This is a great opportunity for all the students to showcase their skills and build their confidence in their chosen fields.”

New College Lanarkshire has earned the title of “best in UK” at the WorldSkills UK final on three occasions in the past four years.

The college, which has a campus at Kildonan Street, currently holds the title and has previously received the most medals of any UK organisation.