Nick Linford | FE Week

Team UK comes in at seventh place at WorldSkills 2015

TeamUK finished in seventh place at this year’s WorldSkills competition, held in Brazil. The team took home three gold medals, three silver, two bronze and 21 medallions for excellence – winning 46 medal points in total. Beauty therapist Rianne Chester, 21, who runs Beauty By Rianne, was handed the award for best overall WorldSkills competitor […]

Policy Exchange’s ‘resit levy’ robs Peter to pay Paul

Policy Exchange’s “Crossing the Line” report explores “improving success rates among students retaking English and Maths GCSEs” and is a welcome acknowledgement of the funding difficulties faced in the further education (FE) sector, but presents a deeply problematic solution in a “per pupil levy” for schools where students fail to achieve a grade C. At […]

Sao Paulo you beauty! Triple UK gold crowned with best WorldSkills competitor first

Three golds were crowned with an illustrious first for TeamUK as beauty therapist Rianne Chester was handed the award for best overall WorldSkills competitor in a glorious night in Brazil. The Albert Vidal award went jointly to the Warrington Collegiate learner (pictured above) — the first time the UK has ever won the prize — while a […]

WorldSkill 2015 – Team UK Souvenir Supplement

In partnership with City and Guilds, download our free souvenir supplement from WorldSkills Sao Paulo 2015.

Landscape gardener Matthew Beesley pays WorldSkills credit to mum and dad

Whether WorldSkills Sao Paulo results in a medal or not for Matthew Beesley, one thing he will be taking away is the knowledge of just how important his mum and dad have been to his competition journey. The 21-year-old (pictured above, right) TeamUK landscape gardener, from Cheshire’s Reaseheath College, said while all the attention focused […]

Day 1 WorldSkills | Early challenges for WorldSkills Team UK during day one of competitions

Danny Hoang loves mangoes — juicy Brazilian mangoes, just like the ones he’s having to work with for his cookery challenge at WorldSkills Sao Paulo today. The Team UK 21-year-old, who studied at Westminster Kingsway College and now works at Colette’s, in the Grove Hotel, near Watford, spent day one of the competition yesterday preparing […]

Singing, dancing and an ambassador’s welcome mark Team UK visit to Sao Paulo schoolchildren

It had singing, it had dancing, it had speeches and it had an international flavour — no, it wasn’t the WorldSkills opening ceremony, but a hugely colourful visit to a Sao Paulo school by Team UK. From a schoolboy violinist playing God Save the Queen to pupils dressed as the Village People dancing to Macho Man, […]

‘Share the lessons of Sao Paulo,’ flag-waving competitors are told as WorldSkills 2015 opens

The flag-bearing best young tradesmen and women of the world were urged to share with everyone the life lessons of competing in Sao Paulo as the curtain went up on the 43rd WordSkills competition. [Slide show of pictures at end of article] WorldSkills president Simon Bartley addressed the thousands gathered in Ibiraquera Gymnasium last night […]

Sneak preview of Sao Paulo´s sprawling WorldSkills venue

The cover might not quite be off WorldSkills 2015 just yet, but FE Week was today one of the few privileged media organisations to be granted sneak preview access to Sao Paulo´s Anhembi Park venue. The opening ceremony takes place tomorrow night, but competitors were allowed to ´familiarise´ themselves with the 400,00-sqm site today — and, […]