Celebrating Team UK's WorldSkills 2019 success

The 45th WorldSkills international competition took place from 22 – 27 August 2019. Team UK travelled to Kazan, Russia to compete alongside over 1,300 young people from 63 countries. The bi-annual WorldSkills event is the largest international skills competition of its kind bringing young people from across the globe together to compete for medals in their chosen skill. It saw competitors perform across 56 vocational and specialist skills against international peers. Team UK won four medals, two of which were gold and 15 medallions of excellence. Commenting on the success of Team UK at this year’s WorldSkills competition, AoC Chief Executive David Hughes said: “Everyone at AoC is so proud of all the students and apprentices that competed in Kazan this year. A huge congratulations to all 37 competitors and in particular to Haydn Jakes and Rebecca West for winning a gold medal each and to Conor McKevitt and Phoebe McLavy for bringing home silver and bronze respectively. To represent your country on the world stage, every competitor has shown their talent and their application, with loads of hard work over a long period. That’s what is so impressive – the determination and the skills of every one of our 37 competitors. Being on the world stage shows how important the FE sector is and how vital colleges are to supporting and nurturing young people to achieve excellence. The competition also provides the opportunity to learn more about how we can achieve excellence in skills development, learning from other countries. It is vital that government, industry and the sector work together to ensure the UK continues to provide generations to come with high quality skills provision.”