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Squad UK announced for WorldSkills Leipzig 2013

The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) has today announced the young competitors that have won a place in Squad UK for WorldSkills Leipzig 2013 – the skills Olympics.

WorldSkills is the biggest international skills competition in the world. Held every two years in one of its 61 member countries or regions, the competition sees around 1,000 young people aged 18 to 23 compete for medals in more than 40 different skills – from mobile robotics, to landscape gardening.

One of the lucky competitors picked for Squad UK is Ashley Terron (see picture above) – a former student of Warrington College that now works for Peter Terron Brickwork Contracting Ltd. The 20-year-old bricklayer told FE Week that in his last year of school one of his teachers strongly discouraged him from going into bricklaying, telling him that he should only consider construction if he failed his A-Levels.

“I’ve used that to spur me on,” says Ashley. “I wanted to prove him wrong.” He believes that trades are undervalued and praises WorldSkills for challenging this.

“Without trades and without the skills that are in the competition the world wouldn’t go round,” he says.

Ben Weardon, a health care assistant at Coote Lane Residential Home who studies at Preston College, told FE Week that gaining a place in Squad UK has given him the belief that his can “do anything”. The 19-year-old, who is competing in the health and social care category, has always wanted to open his own business and since being selected he has secured the funding to do this.

By competing in international competitions, the UK is able to showcase the high levels of performance that can be achieved by individuals and organisations”

The members of Squad UK were chosen from among the UK’s most talented apprentices, employees and learners after they competed in tough three-day selection events. They will spend the next year preparing to take on the very best from across the world, undergoing a specialised training programme supported by a dedicated training manager for each skill.

Squad UK competitors will compete for a place in Team UK at further selection events in March 2013.  Team UK will then carry on training intensively before heading to WorldSkills Leipzig in July 2013.

Jaine Bolton, director at the NAS and UK official delegate to WorldSkills International, said: “I offer my warm support and congratulations to every young person that has earned a place in Squad UK.

“By competing in international competitions, the UK is able to showcase the high levels of performance that can be achieved by individuals and organisations through high quality further education, skills training and apprenticeships. This provides the inspiration for young people and adults to be ambitious in their pursuit of skills to the highest level.”

FE Week is the official supporters of Squad and Team UK and will be following their progress from the selection competition (read our report here) all the way to Leipzig and beyond.

Squad UK Members list announced today in full:

Beauty Therapy

  • Katie Wright, 20, from St Ives, Cambridge.   Attended Cambridge Regional College, now works at Urban Retreat in London.
  • Naomi Radbourne, 20, from Tamworth, Staffordshire.  Attends Burton and South Derbyshire College and works at Hive of Beauty, Sutton Coldfield.
  • Rianne Chester, 19, from Warrington.  Attends Warrington Collegiate and works at Akira Nails & Beauty , Warrington.

Bricklaying

  • Sam Chilvers, 19, an apprentice from Eye Suffolk.  Attends Otley College of Argiculture and Horticulture and works at Crest Nicholson.
  • Ashley Terron, 20, an apprentice from Warrington.  Attends Warrington Collegiate and Warrington Collegiate.

Cabinet Making

  • Blake Fewster, 20, from Taunton, Somerset.  Attends Bridgwater College.
  • Edward Harringman, 18, an from Battle, East Sussex.  Attends Chichester College of Technology.
  • George Callow, 20, an apprentice from Wittering, West Sussex,  Attends Chichester College of Technology and works at Cimitree Furniture.

Health and Social Care

  • Ben Wearden, 19 from Preston.  Attends Preston College and is employed by Coote Lane Residential Home.

Carpentry

  • Philip Glasgow, 21, from  Cookstown, Co, Tyrone, Northern Ireland.  Attends South West College and is employed by RL Scott.

 Confectionery / Pasty Cook

  • Annabelle Wilson, 18, from Hampton, Middlesex.  Attends University of Westminster and  is employed by  Bachmann’s Patisserie
  • Stephen Smith, 17, from Harpenden,  Hertfordshire.  Attends Westminster Kingsway College

Cooking

  • Louisa May Matthews, 21, from Eton.  Works at Eton College.
  • Danny Hoang, 18 from London.  Attends Westminster Kingsway College and works at L’Autre Pied.
  • Andre Rhone, 18, Northolt, Middlesex.  Works at Royal Garden Hotel, London.

Electrical Installation

  • Matthew Crane, 21, an apprentice from Bristol.  Employed by N G Bailey and attends the Bailey Training Academy.
  • Adrian Canning, 19, an apprentice from Dungiven, Co.Londonderry, Northern Ireland.  Attends North West Regional College and is employed by RMG Electronics.

Electronics

  • Gareth Humphreys, 19, an apprentice from Warrington. Employed by MBDA and attends Wigan and Leigh College.
  • Heather Peach, 18, an apprentice from Wigan. Employed by MBDA and attends Wigan and Leigh College
  • Michael Cox, 18, an apprentice from Wigan. Employed by MBDA and attends Wigan and Leigh College

Floristry

  • Caite Bond, 20, from Sussex.
  • Chloe Woolf, 21, from Bradwell Milton Keynes.  Works at Bluebell Flowers in Milton Keynes.
  • Stephanie Tues, 19,  from Barnsley, Yorkshire.  Works at Rachael’s florist in Barnsley.

Hairdressing

  • Emma Hodges, 19 from Lydbrook Gloucestershire.  Attends Red Edge Training Company.
  • Charlotte Macey, 20, from Bristol.  Attends City of Bristol College and works at 201 Hair & Beauty.
  • Hannah Clague, 21 an apprentice from Gloucester.   Attends Red Edge Training Company and works at The Cutting Edge.

Joinery

  • David Beattie, 21 from Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone.  Attends South West College and employs The Green Oak Framing.

Painting and Decorating

  • Ryan O’Gorman, 20,  from Ballyholland, Co. Down, Northern Ireland.  Attends Southern Regional College.
  • Reece Johnston, 20 from Leicester and attends Leicester College.

 

Plastering and Dry Wall Systems

  • Ken Wilson, 19 from Belfast.  Attends Belfast Metropolitan College and is employed by Wilson Plastering.
  • Robert Johnson, 19 from Middlesbrough.   Attends Redcar and Cleveland College and is employed by Classic Plaster Moulds.

 

Plumbing and Heating

  • Lee Cuthill, 21, an apprentice from Denbighshire, Wales.  Attends Yale College and is employed by D I Jones Heating Engineers.
  • Ashley Bainbridge, 21 from Sale, Cheshire.  Attends Salford City College and is employed by John Fletchers Engineers.

Stonemasonry

  • Steve Poole, 21 an apprentice from Church Down Gloucestershire.  Attends City Of Bath College and is employed by Meister Masonry
  • Robert Broomsgrove, 20, an apprentice  from High Bridge Somerset.  Attends Weymouth College and is employed by Wells Cathedral Stonemasons.
  • Jonathan Cowell, 19, an apprentice from Blackburn.  Attends York College and is employed by  Lambert Walker Conservation and Restoration

Wall and Floor Tiling

  • Mark Woods, 21, from Lack, Co, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.  Attends South West College and works at Artie Mullan Tiling
  • Graham Burns, 20, from Tandragee, Co Armargh.  Attends Southern Regional College and is employed by Brian Burns Tiling Services.

Visual Merchandising

  • Sarah Smithers, 20, from Woking, Surrey.  Works at Alexander James Interiors.
  • Jenna Stephenson, 19, from Sefton, Liverpool.  Will attend Liverpool Community College in September.

Web Design

  • Charlie Benjafield, 17 from Milton Keynes.  Attends Stantonbury Campus.
  • Daniel Koehler, 17, from Carmarthenshire, Wales.  Attends Coleg Sir Gar.

 

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Ofsted slams FE for failing to address the unemployment problem

Matching students with a course that will lead to employment is “not a high enough priority” for FE providers, according to a report published by Ofsted today.

Their Skills for Employment report found that too many courses focused on the achievement of qualifications and did not extend to training that led to job specific skills. Ofsted also found that many providers were not offering jobseekers challenging enough courses that were likely to increase their chances of sustained employment.

Only 19 per cent of students were successful in getting a job according to the report, after interviews with 10,270 jobseekers spanning 31 different further education providers.

Job outcome data was collected between January and May 2012 and “included people who had only just left the programme shortly before the data were collected and were still looking for work”. However, the report does conceed that “The providers generally reported that the data represented a smaller proportion than the actual jobs achieved because it was difficult to gain accurate information on progression to employment.”

Ofsted was also critical of the first round of Skills Funding Agency allocations made to all prime providers to support learners into work. The report stated: “The funding allocation system of 2.5% of a provider’s adult skills budget for capacity building resulted in considerable discrepancies in the amount of money available, ranging from less than £17,000 to £450,000 in some cases. The amount of funding allocated was not a reliable indicator of the level of commitment to the initiative in the providers visited.”

Matthew Coffey, Ofsted’s national director of learning and skills, said: “We found too many courses simply lead on to more courses and do not address the urgency of getting unemployed adults into work.

“These issues along with others are being discussed at the first annual Learning and Skills Lecture. Further Education is becoming more and more important in promoting economic prosperity and enabling social mobility by supporting young people and unemployed adults to make the transition into work, improving literacy and numeracy and by providing top quality apprenticeships.”

In response to the report Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Colleges in England provide work-related education and training for more than 220,000 unemployed people a year, working closely with local employers and Jobcentre Plus to ensure they are providing them with the skills essential to find work. In one of the deepest and most sustained recessions in decades, the work our members do in this area is crucial to getting both individuals and the UK economy back on track.

“Ofsted’s Skills for Employment report addresses a number of issues that our member colleges have been concerned about for some time, namely the difficulties they face in being able to arrange work experience for students, the barriers jobseekers sometimes face in getting the training they need and colleges being funded to deliver national programmes of study that do not always meet local employment needs.”

The AoC also said that it was worth noting that colleges only account for 17 of the providers inspected by Ofsted for the report.

The think tank the Social Market Foundation (SMF) argues that government funding for FE providers should be linked to the subsequent earnings of their students if policy is to result in skills that that lead to employment.

Their Brtain’s Got Talent paper states that government policies have been largely ineffective in giving people the skills they need to secure lasting jobs and raise the productivity of the workforce. The organisation believes that a new model that rewards training providers for offering courses in skills that lead to better paid and higher quality jobs is needed.

Ian Mulheirn, director of the SMF and co-author of the report, said: “The UK is suffering from a chronic skills deficit, with one third of adults lacking good school-leaving qualifications. But attempts to create a demand-led skills system have suffered because policymakers have consistently misinterpreted what ‘demand-led’ actually means. Ignoring wage and employment signals from the jobs market, government has too often focused on giving cash to employers for training they would have conducted anyway, or handing funds to trainees who end up taking courses that don’t lead to jobs.

“This is costly for the taxpayer, unhelpful for employers, and above all, bad for learners whose efforts to achieve sustainable and good quality employment are too often in vain.”

The 157 group said that there needs flexibility around funding to ensure more people land viable, sustainable employment. In their Tackling Unemployment: The College Contribution report the organisation said that colleges should not be restricted to delivering courses only on the Qualification and Credit Framework.

Graham Hoyle, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, added, “we welcome this report’s recommendations because many of them chime precisely with what AELP has been saying to the government for months; namely that we need to see more integration between the three main government departments’ programmes that lead to sustainable employment being regarded as the key outcome of the support being given by providers.  Qualifications are important for progression but too much emphasis on achieving one before securing a job can be counter-productive, especially in the current economic climate.

“There is an appetite among our members to make a success of this provision as illustrated by the demand for copies of the new joint AELP/LSIS toolkit and by Ofsted’s own observation that independent providers have been cross-subsidising their provision from other funding streams.  Independent providers are likely to remain committed to the provision, but they require a clear signal from the Skills Funding Agency that it still sees funding of skills for the unemployed as a major priority as well as the funding of growth in apprenticeships.”

The Ofsted report follows the government’s launch in August last year of a set of new initiatives to encourage further education providers to prioritise labour market focused training.

FE Week will be attending the Ofsted lecture today, so stay tuned for more comment and reaction from across the FE sector, and you can leave a comment below 

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