Nearly 150 young people are one step closer to taking on the world’s best, having been listed among the WorldSkills UK squad.

The names of most of those who will begin training with the aim of representing Team UK at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi in 2017 were announced on Saturday night at the closing ceremony for the Skills Show in Birmingham.

Dr Neil Bentley, chief executive of Find a Future, which manages the UK’s entry into the WorldSkills competition, said: “I offer my huge congratulations to every young person who has secured a place in Squad UK at The Skills Show 2015.

“By competing in the WorldSkills Competition, the UK is able to share best practice in apprenticeships, further education and skills with countries around the world, raising standards on a global scale.”

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The young people who have earned a place on Squad UK are worthy ambassadors and demonstrate how high quality apprenticeships and technical training can be a fast-track to a top career.

“I congratulate each and every member of Squad UK and look forward to hearing about their preparations for 2017’s competition in Abu Dhabi.”

The 148 young people, including winners from this year’s Skills Show finals, who have so far been named for Squad UK (see list below) represent 83 different FE providers across the UK, including FE colleges, independent learning providers and employers.

Southern Regional College in Northern Ireland has the highest number of any provider, with seven learners in the squad representing five skill areas: health and social care, joinery, mechanical engineering CAD, plumbing, and wall and floor tiling.

City of Glasgow College and Coleg Sir Gar have the next highest number of learners on the squad, with six each.

The City of Glasgow College learners will be competing for places in Team UK in four skill areas: beauty therapy (body), confectionery, culinary arts and restaurant services.

Coleg Sir Gar’s squad members, which include a brother and sister, Bruno and Elizabeth Forkuoh, will represent four skill areas: carpentry, manufacturing team challenge, restaurant service and web design.

The highest ranking English provider, with four learners in the squad, is University Technical College (UTC) Sheffield. Its four learners are (pictured main, from left) Edward Anderson, Jacob Staniforth, Hannah Saville, and Jaye Griffiths, all aged 18 and they will be aiming to represent Team UK in industrial control.

New College Lanarkshire, Riverpark Training, South West College, The Automated Technology Group, The Goldsmiths’ Centre and Toyota Manufacturing Ltd also have four learners each on the squad.

Squad UK members for bricklaying are expected be announced on Wednesday, November 25, as the results of the national finals have not yet been announced.

The results in the roofing (slate and tiling) and plastering competitions have also been delayed, but these skills areas are not represented at WorldSkills.

A spokesperson for Find a Future, the competition organisers, said the delay was because “it will be necessary to re-verify the results of these competitions”.

Pic: Alex Reynolds

Squad UK members

Aeronautical engineering: mechanical

• Philip Broodbank (Airbus)
• Aaron Duckworth (Thomson Airways)
• William Hughes (Raytheon Systems Ltd)
• Joseph Massey (Coleg Cambria)
• David Sutton (QinetiQ)

 

Automotive body repair

• Daniel Baker (Chartwell)
• Andrew Gault (Riverpark Training)
• Andrew McClure (Riverpark Training)
• Andrew Spiers (Riverpark Training)

 

Automotive refinishing

• Rory Clague (Race & Restoration)
• Daryl Head (Thatcham Automotive Academy)
• Jonathan McNaugher (Riverpark Training)
• Kyle Saunders (Coleg Gwent)

 

Automotive technology

• Seamus Goodfellow (South West College)

 

Beauty therapy – body

• Samantha Adams (Coleg Cambria)
• Ashlea Gissing (Great Yarmouth College of Further Education)
• Isla McLarty (City of Glasgow College)
• Shannon Morris (Truro and Penwith College)
• Kaiya Swain (Sussex Downs College)

 

Cabinet making

• Jack Adams (Chichester College)
• Jack Bateman (Chichester College)
• Angus Bruce-Gardner (Waters and Acland)
• David Sparkes (Bridgwater College)

 

Carpentry

• Benjamin Allen (Coleg Sir Gar)
• Shane Everett (Carter Academy)
• Robert Hamilton (Northern Regional College)
• Cameron Nutt (North West Regional College)
• Dean O’Neill (South West College)

 

CNC milling

• Ethan Davies (Coleg Cambria)
• Liam Woinson (Training 2000 Ltd)

 

CNC turning

• Ryan Allenby (M-Sport Ltd)
• Samuel Parkinson (Training 2000 Ltd)
• Phillip Whiteside (Rolls Royce Plc)

 

Confectionery

• Chloe Hart (City of Glasgow College)
• Steven Lodge (Hull College)
• Chloe Oswald (City of Glasgow College)
• Lorna Thompson (Hull College)

 

Construction metalwork

• Bradley Clare (Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education)
• Oliver Kauss (Humberside Engineering Training Association)
• Macaulay Reavil (Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education)
• Luke Sherwood (Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education)
• Thomas Woodburn (WEC Group Ltd)

 

Culinary arts

• Burhan Ahmed (Henley College Coventry)
• Nicolle Finnie (City of Glasgow College)
• Ryan Gray (New College, Durham)
• Ruth Hansom (Westminster Kingsway College)
• Charles Quiambao (City of Glasgow College)

 

Electrical installation

• Matthew Doe (Bridgwater College)
• Daniel Griffin (Coleg Gwent)
• Harvey Hemmens (Bridgwater College)
• Sutherland More (Moray College UHI)

 

Fine jewellery making

• Sharon Alvarez (The Goldsmiths’ Centre)
• Hugo Johnson (Richard Talman Fine Jewellery)
• Chloe Lightfoot (The Goldsmiths’ Centre)
• Alex Wood (The Goldsmiths’ Centre)
• Eleanor Woolacott (The Goldsmiths’ Centre)

 

Floristry

• Caitlin Anning (Academy of Floral Art)
• Aneekah Hussain (Farnborough College of Technology)
• Robyn Lingdwn (Reaseheath College)
• Danielle Scandone (Guildford College of Further and Higher Education)

 

Hairdressing

• Kelly Bishop (Red’s Hair Company)
• Lucy Knight (City of Bristol College)
• Nicola Sharratt (Burton and South Derbyshire College)
• Ashleigh Marie Simmons (Coleg y Cymoedd)
• Bridie Thorne (Pride Hairdressing & Barber Shop)

 

Health and social care

• Aine Devlin (Southern Regional College)
• Jessica Duckworth (Burnley College)
• Laura Jean King (Weston College)
• Georgina Ravenscroft (Five Boroughs NHS Partnership Trust)
• Jenny Smyth (Southern Regional College)

 

Industrial control

• Edward Anderson (UTC Sheffield)
• Bradley Crisp (The Automated Technology Group)
• Jaye Griffiths (UTC Sheffield)
• Yestin Lamptey (The Automated Technology Group)
• James Mason (The Automated Technology Group)
• Josh Russell (The Automated Technology Group)
• Hannah Saville (UTC Sheffield)
• Sam Scott (Industrial Automation & Control Ltd)
• Jacob Staniforth (UTC Sheffield)

 

Industrial electronics

• Tom Andrews (Alton College)
• Jimmy Page (Alton College)
• Jaroslaw Radecki (Belfast Metropolitan College)

 

IT support technician

• Andrew Matthews (Highbury College, Portsmouth)
• Kalum Pepperday (West Nottinghamshire College Group)

 

Joinery

• Jack Chambers (Chesterfield College)
• Jordan Mark (Southern Regional College)
• Kieran Paterson (Dumfries and Galloway College)
• Kyle Weir (South West College)
• Conor Willmott (West Suffolk College)

 

Landscape gardening

• William Burberry (Gardenscapes)
• Adam Ferguson (College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise)
• Noel Taggart (College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise)

 

Manufacturing team challenge

• Jamie Davies (Coleg Sir Gar)
• Bruno Forkuoh (Coleg Sir Gar)
• Jake Green (CarnaudMetalBox)
• Niall Howarth (City of Wolverhampton College)
• Jonathan Mackay (City of Wolverhampton College)
• Alexander McCluskey (CarnaudMetalBox)
• Jacob Parker (CarnaudMetalBox)
• Matthew Plant (City of Wolverhampton College)
• James Stallard (Coleg Sir Gar)

 

Mechanical engineering: CAD

• Betsy Crosbie (New College Lanarkshire)
• Tobias Husbands (BAE Systems)
• Christopher Hugh Reid (New College Lanarkshire)
• Michael Skora (Southern Regional College)
• Calum Waltho (New College Lanarkshire)

 

Mechatronics

• Meliha Beglerovic (Middlesex University)
• Jack Dakin (Toyota Manufacturing Ltd)
• Sam Hillier (Toyota Manufacturing Ltd)
• Mehnaz Mahaboob (Middlesex University)
• Humzah Razzaque (Toyota Manufacturing Ltd)
• Tom Revell (Toyota Manufacturing Ltd)

 

Network infrastructure technician

• Oliver Davis (Bedford College)
• Jonathan Samson (New College Lanarkshire)
• Luke Andrew Saunders (Darlington College of Technology)

 

Network security

• Shane Carpenter (North East Surrey College of Technology)

 

Network systems administrator

• Matthew Thomas (North East Surrey College of Technology)

 

Painting and decorating

• Ryan Chamberlain (New College, Durham)
• Jordan Charters (Edinburgh College)
• Gemma Chizary (New College, Durham)

 

Plastering and drywall systems

• Dale Calderwood (Belfast Metropolitan College)
• Sam Dowsett (British Gypsum Technical Academy)
• Gwthin Jones (Coleg Llandrillo Cymru)
• Harrison Moy (British Gypsum Technical Academy)

 

Plumbing

• Daniel Martins (Briggs and Forrester Group Ltd)
• Gavin Rice (Southern Regional College)
• Alex Rooney (South West College)

 

Restaurant service

• Thomas Baxter (City of Glasgow College)
• Elizabeth Forkuoh (Coleg Sir Gar)
• Ryan Kenyon (Marriott Hotel)
• Jordan Philburn (Tameside College)
• Zac Williams-Wolfe (Tameside College)

 

Stonemasonry

• Toby Brook (City of Bath College)

 

Visual merchandising

• Catherine Abbott (Top Shop)
• Amy Greatrex (University of South Wales)
• Hannah Morgan (University of South Wales)
• Chloe Wills (University of the Arts, London)

 

Wall and floor tiling

• Kieran Magee (Southern Regional College)
• Jack Radford (New College, Nottingham)
• Armondas Tamulis (Southern Regional College)

 

Web design

• Tom Burton (Highbury College, Portsmouth)
• Alfie Hopkin (Coleg Sir Gar)
• Nathan Jones (NPTC Group)
• Jordan Tucker (Weston College)
• Anton Williams (Highbury College, Portsmouth)

 

Welding

• Thomas Earle (Doosan Babcock)
• Neil O’Brien (Doosan Babcock)
• Jonathan Rowell (Lakes College, West Cumbria)

Record numbers of young people, teachers and parents visited the Skills Show in Birmingham last week, with figures for Saturday showing a 44 per cent rise on last year.

A total of 78,324 people visited the show over the three days, with 20,597 of those on the Saturday, according to figures released today by organisers Find a Future.

“The Skills Show’s unique experiential careers advice model once again proved a big hit,” said Dr Neil Bentley (pictured right), chief executive of Find a Future.

“The success of this year’s event demonstrates how much demand there is for excellent careers advice on vocational education, training and apprenticeships.

“Our Saturday opening saw high numbers of families attending together to learn about vocational careers – a clear indicator of how keen parents and guardians are to be involved in their children’s career choices.”

Visitors to the NEC also had the chance to watch more than 670 talented young people taking part in the finals of 58 WorldSkills UK Skills competitions, with successful entrants later named in Squad UK to train towards selection for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.

Meanwhile, medal winners in the plastering, bricklaying and roofing (slate and tiling) competitions have now been announced.

The results in these competitions were not among those announced on Saturday, as they needed to be “re-verified” according to Find a Future.

Among the late results was a win in plastering that brought City of Glasgow College’s tally of gold medals to five.

Hull College and Newcastle College both scored their first gold medals of the competition, in bricklaying and roofing (slate and tiling), respectively.

Leeds College of Building won its first medals of the competition with a silver in plastering and a bronze in roofing (slate and tiling), while Leicester College also won its first medal of the competition with a silver in bricklaying.

Cornwall College doubled its medal tally, with a silver in roofing (slate and tiling) adding to its earlier gold in cabinet making. And Chichester College also doubled its medals, adding a bronze in bricklaying to the silver it won in cabinet making.

York College gained a bronze medal in bricklaying – its first medal of the competition. While City of Bristol College also won its first medal of the competition, with a bronze in plastering.

The final list of Squad UK members is expected to be announced tomorrow (November 25) — 148 squad members have already been announced.

“The opportunity to see competitors in action in the WorldSkills UK Skills Competition finals is a vital part of the Skills Show,” said Dr Bentley.

“They are the link between the skills which visitors try for the first time at the event, education and training opportunities, employers and achieving success.

“Watching their peers in action is incredibly motivating for young visitors, while the involvement of our Skills Champions — former competitors on the world stage — at this year’s event provided our audience with the chance to discover first hand what it is like to succeed at the very highest level.

“We are confident that those named in Squad UK for 2017 will continue to drive performance standards in competitions still further, and inspire even more young people to take up vocational careers.”

The exclusive front page story in FE Week edition 154 on startlingly low levels of apprenticeship delivery among some colleges promised more details would be published later.

The full list of apprenticeship allocations for general FE colleges was published in edition 155 and can be seen below.

Click here for an expert piece on colleges’ delivery of adult apprenticeships from Association of Colleges senior skills manager Teresa Frith.

Source: Figures from SFA FoI responses and college category defined as ‘General FE and Tertiary’ as listed in 2015/16 EFA allocations

 

City of Glasgow College emerged the big winner from Skills Show 2015 in Birmingham as it claimed eight medals, including four golds — the most for any provider.

The Saturday closing ceremony, which marked the culmination of national skills competitions finals, also saw the announcement of most of the long squad (pictured above) ahead of the next WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi in 2017.

City of Glasgow College’s four gold medals were in beauty therapy (body), confectionery, culinary arts and health & social care. It also won two silver medals, in network systems administrator and confectionery, and two bronzes, in culinary arts and network infrastructure technician.

North East Surrey College of Technology was next up with three golds before Northern Ireland’s Southern Regional College and also North West Regional College were tied on two golds with Wales’s Coleg Cambria and also Coleg Sir Gar, Scotland’s New College Lanarkshire and England’s Mid Kent College and Highbury College Portsmouth.

Around 700 people attended the awards event, held at the Birmingham NEC, which had earlier featured opening speeches by Dr Neil Bentley, chief executive of organisers Find a Future and Peter Lauener, chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency and the Education Funding Agency.

“As the UK’s official delegate for WorldSkills competitions I know I’ve seen young people with the potential to succeed in the heat of international competition, when the next WorldSkills event is held in Abu Dhabi in 2017,” said Mr Lauener.

“Every competitor I’ve seen this week in Birmingham knows that they have the skills which will give them a good career,” he said.

“They will create wealth and prosperity for themselves and their families and their communities, all because of their skills.”

Dr Bentley said: “I am certain that those who make it on to that plane to Abu Dhabi will fly the flag for the UK with pride.”

The names of most of those who will make up Squad UK were also announced at the end of the night. These 200 people, who were selected on the basis of their success at UK Skills 2015 and 2014, will begin training with the aim of representing Team UK at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi in October 2017.

The results of the bricklaying, roofing – slate and tiling, and plastering competitions have not yet been announced.

According to Find a Future, the competition organisers, the delay was because “it will be necessary to re-verify the results of these competitions”. The winners in these competitions are expected to be announced on Wednesday (November 25).

Fourteen training providers with combined allocations of nearly £6.9m in adult skills budget (ASB) and almost £5.8m for 16 to 18 apprenticeships had their contracts with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) terminated early in 2014/15, it has been revealed.

Of these providers named by the SFA on November 16, six had combined ASB and 16 to 18 apprenticeship allocations totaling more than £1m.

The SFA may terminate a funding agreement for a number of reasons including, an SFA spokesperson SFA, “where there are quality issues, an Ofsted grade four or where we have other evidence of poor quality delivery or serious breach of the contract”.

Building Engineering Services Training Ltd (BEST), which provides training and apprenticeships in the building services engineering sector, had its contract with the SFA terminated following an inadequate rating from Ofsted in June.

Tony Howard, acting head of BEST, which was allocated £531,389 in ASB and £1,440,872 for 16 to 18 apprenticeships, said the organisation had since entered into a “strategic relationship” with another training provider.

“We are also developing a new concept and model for apprenticeships to answer employer engagement and ownership issues for the future,” said Mr Howard.

John Budu-Aggrey, director of Alpha Building Services Engineering (Alpha BSE), said its most recent Ofsted inspection in November 2014, which resulted in an inadequate rating, did not accurately reflect the full range of what they did.

“We have young people who dropped out of school, who don’t have grade C.

We take them through level one.

We give them employability skills, Functional Skills,” said Mr Budu-Aggrey.

Alpha BSE, based in London, was allocated £67,556 in ASB and £718,776 for 16 to 18 apprenticeships in 2014/15.

“We are doing only fee paying courses now,” added Mr Budu-Aggrey.

Four of the 14 providers are no longer operating, with Companies House records showing they were in liquidation.

They were MIC Skills & Employability, Targeted Training Projects, Visage School of Beauty Career Development Center. Business Impact UK was listed as in the process of winding down, while the annual return of Venture Learning was overdue.

FE Week was unable to contact Venture Learning.

All six of these had been rated inadequate overall at their most recent Ofsted inspections.

A further six, with a combined ASB allocation of £4m and a combined 16 to 18 apprenticeship allocation of £1.71m, declined to comment.

These six providers, all of which were rated inadequate by Ofsted at their most recent inspections except for one which did not have an Ofsted report, were Barford Education and Training (North East); Blue Training; Herbert of Liverpool (Training) Ltd; Kats Learning; Four Counties Training, and ABA Training (which had not been rated by Ofsted).

The SFA spokesperson was unable to confirm when each of the funding agreements was terminated.

The final claims for 2014/15, which will show how much each provider was paid, are being calculated and will be published next month, the spokesperson said.

Government adviser Professor Lady Alison Wolf (pictured above) has admitted harbouring serious doubts about David Cameron’s 3m apprenticeship starts target labelling it “a big mistake”.

She told the House of Lords Social Mobility Committee that the target meant Whitehall officials would be “rushing around like a headless chicken” to achieve it.

She appeared before the committee on Tuesday (November 18) to give evidence on social mobility in the transition from school to work and was quizzed on the government’s apprenticeship target, which it aims to hit by 2020.

“I think the target is a big mistake and I am really worried about the target”, said Lady Wolf.

“Everything that I see makes me more worried because you put a target inside a government department and everyone starts rushing around like a headless chicken trying to figure out ways of meeting it.”

She described it as an “enormous target” and added that if there was an apprenticeship programme of that size then “you would actually be ending up in a situation where every young person in the country became an apprentice”.

Lady Wolf said reaching the target was “extremely unlikely” and if the Government “go on and on about it — it will distort everything else and the price will be the quality of what we are getting”.

She also commented on the idea to have even more apprentices than the previous government seems to her as “extraordinary”.

She said: “I also don’t think they [Government] are budgeting for it because they said they will put money in and will fund the SMEs and if you look at what the spend per apprentice was in the last five years it was a level of spending for which you could only afford to do large number of the low quality apprenticeships.”

Lady Wolf said she found it hard to believe in this current fiscal climate that there was the money to meet the target and still have high quality.

She added that colleges should very clearly be the place that apprenticeship training took place and she would stop the “hundreds and thousands” of small providers coming in, saying “it just doesn’t work”.

The evidence session came a week after the committee questioned Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw on promoting vocational routes.

The next House of Lords Social Mobility Committee hearing is due to take place on Wednesday, November 25, with witnesses yet to be announced.

Skills Minister Nick Boles has been urged to stay out of apprenticeship delivery business after telling college principals that independent learning providers (ILPs) were “nicking” their lunch.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal hit back at Mr Boles who told Association of Colleges (AoC) conference delegates that ILPs were better than colleges at securing apprenticeship funding.

Mr Boles, during a keynote speech at the ICC Birmingham on Tuesday (November 17), challenged colleges to go from delivering a third of all apprenticeships to two-thirds and told principals: “As your friend, I have to ask you this, why on earth are you letting these guys [ILPs] nick your lunch?”

Mr Segal was unhappy with the Minister’s comments and told FE Week: “I don’t think it is a question of anybody nicking anybody’s work.

“The market will decide and employers and learners will choose the best provider for them and the one that can deliver their best programme.”

“I don’t think the minister should get involved in which percentage of what figure is delivered by which type of provider,” he added.

It comes after FE Week revealed low levels of college take-up on apprenticeship delivery at many colleges.

Skills Funding Agency figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that colleges, on average, have 27 per cent of their 2015/16 Adult Skills Budget allocated to apprenticeships, compared with 60 per cent at other providers.

But the college figure varies significantly across the country, with London colleges averaging just 12 per cent, as reported in FE Week on November 13.

Mr Boles also told AoC conference delegates: “Total government spending on apprenticeships grew by £400m, or nearly 30 per cent, between 2009/10 and 2015/16.

“In 2009/10 the taxpayer was investing every year £1.1m in apprenticeship training but in 2015/16 it will be £1.5bn.

“We need to help you take advantage of that funding stream. I want to help you give ILPs a very good run for their money and secure a much larger share of that funding.”

Mr Boles added that even if the government hit its 3m apprenticeship starts target by 2020 “we will still have fewer apprentices per 1,000 of population than almost any of our European competitors and if it works for them and makes them productive I don’t think we should shrink from it”.

“The new apprenticeship levy will provide substantial additional resources to fund training,” he added.