At the start, last night’s opening ceremony for EuroSkills 2014 felt like quite a muted affair — the photographer, film crew and I met competitors from the Metro and after pictures and setting up for the ceremony team members were guided to their seats in the Zenith Arena.

But gradually, as more and more teams took their places, the buzz around the room started to grow, and the mumble of a few thousand people talking to each other began to swell until it reached deafening proportions.

The entire arena was engulfed in waves of chanting and whooping and various instruments — whistles from Team UK, a huge cowbell from the Swiss and a trumpet from the Belgians.

Team UK went from standing around looking uncertain to full-throated cheering — think of a football match but with 25 different teams being supported and you’re probably there.

In between the speeches from the WorldSkills officials, former EuroSkills competitors gave demonstrations, the most impressive of which was a restaurant service guy (whose name I couldn’t catch over the din), who poured out a row of rainbow coloured cocktails, all from the same cocktail shaker.

The host asked him how he’d found the EuroSkills experience. “Give it everything and don’t hold back,” he replied. “WorldSkills competitions completely changed my life.”

And even looking at the competitors on Team UK, waiting to start their first international level competition, you can see that change starting to happen.

Young people who, when I met them at competition just a few months ago were too shy to look me in the eye when being interviewed, were now happily chatting about their skills, their chances and the bizarre mixture of nervousness and confidence they all seemed to be feeling.

Lucy Jones, a 20-year-old restaurant service competitor, told me: “Being here is a bit bizarre, it seemed like it was so far ahead and now its here and that’s really scary.”

But she added: “I feel good, really good about my chances — better than I was expecting to.”

After all the training, the preparation and tension of finding out whether or not they’ve got through, you can see, despite the nerves of the coming competition, the team members starting to realise — “I can do this, I am good at this, I have something to show the world”.

And for any young person poised on the edge of a job market, in an uncertain economy and a society that doesn’t always know how to value their skills, how could that feeling not have a massive impact? How could it not change your life?
The prefect of the local French government, Jean-Francois Cordet, told the assembled crowd: “Its not just about the medals, just by being here tonight, you’re all winners.”

It’s a sentiment that might sound a bit trite, but when you look at the competitors here you realise it is true – even if they don’t come home with a stack of medals, even if they don’t get through to Sao Paulo and next year’s WorldSkills, they have all achieved something massive, and more importantly they will all come away with something.

John Peerless, 22, who’s competing in mechatronics, summed up the general mood among the group, telling me: “I’m really excited to be here – but now I’m just eager to start.”

Send your message of support to Team UK using the comment section at the bottom of this article and by using #TeamUK on twitter.

Pictured top: Team UK entering the Zenith for the Opening Ceremony.

To view more pictures from the opening ceremony please view the World Skills UK FlickR account.

 

Yesterday morning, Team UK set out for EuroSkills in Lille.

The 19 young men and women will compete against fellow apprentices from across Europe, hoping to hone their skills, pick up medals and maybe, just maybe, earn themselves a spot on the team at the WorldSkills finals in Brazil next year.

You could be forgiven for not knowing about any of this. You could be forgiven for never having heard of WorldSkills, and for thinking the only international event taking place in Brazil in the next few years was the Olympics.

So let me fill you in on one of education’s best kept secrets.

WorldSkills competitions started in the 1950s, and if they could have got away with it, they’d probably have called it the Skills Olympics, but you know, copyright and all that.

Like the Olympics, young people at WorldSkills compete against each other in range of disciplines, but instead of demonstrating sporting prowess, they show off their ability in a dizzying array of skills.

From confectionery to plumbing, joinery to computer programming, landscape gardening to beauty therapy – if you can train in it, there’s a good chance you can compete in it at WorldSkills, as long as you’re under 21 and within two years of completing your training (usually).

In the UK, there are annual competitions at regional and national level, with European championships (EuroSkills) and world championships (WorldSkills) taking place in alternate years.

This week sees EuroSkills take place in Lille, France.

Our young competitors were among the 100 hopefuls chosen to join the UK’s provisional Brazil ‘squad’ at a selection event in Northern Ireland in June. They are all receiving intensive training to bring them up to international standard and will be whittled down to the final team for Sao Paulo next year.

But EuroSkills isn’t technically a qualifying event for WorldSkills, and not every skill is represented here.

Instead, it’s used more as an extra training and development opportunity for WorldSkills hopefuls. Nevertheless, EuroSkills competitors will be hoping a good performance could catch the team selectors’ eye.

I have been lucky enough to accompany the competitors at the selection event in Belfast and to EuroSkills – and I’ll be keeping you up to date with all the action, both online and in FE Week between now and next summer’s finals.

The young people who boarded the Eurostar today could easily be mistaken for a regular, energetic bunch of teenagers and 20-year-olds, joking, laughing and taking selfies – albeit slightly more nervous.

But once they enter the competition centre and the timer starts, the level of focus and skill that these people are capable of could rival any Olympic athlete.

And we’re talking serious skill levels here – I’ve seen decorating competitors draw a freehand copy of design on a wall that is identical to the millimetre, cabinet makers produce pieces that now live in Number 10 Downing Street and hairdressers literally make someone’s hair stand on end – all under unimaginable pressure in a matter of strictly-timed hours.

Because these young people are incredible. They are dedicated, they are determined and they are talented. And they deserve recognition.

So spread the word.

The Conservatives will increase the number of apprenticeships from 2m to 3m in the next Parliament funded by cuts to benefits for young people, David Cameron has announced.

The Prime Minister has revealed plans to stop childless 18 to 21-year-olds from claiming housing benefit and withdraw their jobseeker’s allowance if they don’t find work in six months.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show that the money saved would be used to fund 3m apprenticeships over the course of the next Parliament if his party wins next May.

But analysis by FE Week shows that any government attempting to drive up participation among teenagers would have to reverse a worrying downward trend in starts among under 19s.

It comes after Labour leader Ed Miliband pledged to bring apprenticeship and university starts into line by 2025 at his party’s conference speech last week, sparking concerns in the FE sector about “quantity over quality”.

Mr Cameron told the Marr show: “At heart I want us effectively to abolish youth unemployment. I want us to end the idea that aged 18 you leave school, go and leave home, claim unemployment benefit and claim housing benefit. We should not be offering that choice to young people. We should be saying to people you should be earning or learning.

“We are not talking about those people with children. This is about single people aged 18 to 21. You can start a life on dependency and that is no life at all, that is no future for your children when you do have them. We are saying save the money, make sure after six months every one of those young people has to do a job or in training and use the savings to provide three million apprentices”.

His comments come after the number of 16 to 19-year-olds starting an apprenticeship slumped by 12 per cent, from 129,900 in 2011/12 to 114,500 in 2012/13.

Analysis by FE Week also shows that there was a 2 per cent drop in apprenticeship starts in all age groups, from 520,600 in 2011/12 to 510,200 in 2012/13, and that 45 per cent of all new apprentices in 2012/13 were aged 25 and over.

The pledge from Mr Cameron has been cautiously welcomed by Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal.

Mr Segal said: “Training providers will be pleased that all the political parties are committing the funds that will expand the apprenticeship programme.  The Conservatives have announced that they want to increase the number of apprenticeship starts but that can only happen if they work with employers and training providers to build on the success of the current system.

“AELP has always said that the drive to engage more employers will mean that the budgets for Apprenticeships will have to be increased.  We need a firm basis for that increase in investment and this has to be additional funds to the existing adult skills budgets.

“The proposals to fund the expansion through cuts in benefits for young people needs to be carefully thought through.  Getting those young people the right job with training must be the objective so taking part in community projects must be part of a clear plan to get them the work they need. Training providers involved in Welfare to Work programmes need to be involved in developing those proposals.

“Much of the Apprenticeship growth is likely to come from small businesses so we need to ensure that the changes to policy and funding reflect the evidence from employers.  Some of the current proposals will be a barrier to entry for many of those businesses, including direct funding and cash contributions.  We look forward to working with government to make these plans for growth a reality but that must be based on firm evidence and employer choice.”

But Professor Alison Wolf, an academic and adviser to the government who wrote a report on vocational education three years ago which led to the establishment of study programmes, has voiced concerns.

Professor Wolf tweeted: “If you demand more substantial apprenticeships with fixed funding, numbers must fall. Failure if they don’t.”