Hopes for medals were high amongst Team UK on the second day of the WorldSkills Lyon competition. Anviksha Patel caught up with some competitors as they were fresh from completing their tasks of the day.
The confidence was exuding from all the competitors I spoke to today. Though the Eurexpo Lyon was swarmed by French school students, the atmosphere amongst our champions seemed a lot more relaxed than yesterday as participants were uber focused on their modules for the day.
Ready Steady Cook
Cookery competitor Oska Ready, who studied at Doncaster College, is aiming for a medal, but he’s up against some tough competition like France, especially given his tasks have been all about French food.
“The last couple of days, we’ve had to do a hot module, so on the first day we had to do a duck main course,” he said. “It’s all very classical French with us being in Lyon, the gastronomy capital. Today we’ve done a bit of cold work so I’ve made a French gateaux, some pate’s, terrines.”
He added: “It’s gone really well. I’m super happy with how it’s gone.”
Ready said his medal goals are “gold, always gold”.
“I’m staying positive and I’m doing the best I can,” he said. “I’ve already taken away so much from the experience but to also get a medal would cap it off.”
What does he cook in his downtime?
“Beans on toast,” he laughs. “You’re cooking this incredible food all day, you’re almost wanting something super simple.”
Makes sense really.
EuroSkills medallists hoping for more
I also managed to grab our EuroSkills 2023 gold medallist in digital construction Isabelle Barron, who told FE Week that her schedule since winning last year has not been too different.
After her win, she celebrated with her training manager Michael McGuire from Glasgow Caledonian University and then got back down to business.
“It was nice to just spend some time with him to celebrate,” she added.
A bashful Barron said, “any medal would be amazing,” when asked what her hopes were for WorldSkills.
Barron has four tasks over four days comprising projects such as 3D modelling, setting up cloud collaboration space, energy analysis of buildings and project management.
Elsewhere, EuroSkills 2023 bronze medallist in hairdressing Charlotte Lloyd is aiming to come out in the top 6 out of 27 competitors.
“I wouldn’t mind a medal but I’m not putting that pressure on myself.”
Since yesterday, Lloyd has a had to work on two women’s hairdressing tasks, and one men’s. Yesterday, she did a perm and a colour on a women’s mannequin, a men’s cut and colour. This afternoon, she did another cut and colour on a lady and she also tackled giving a taper and a beard wet shave to a live male model, which she was “really happy with”.
Since her medal win, she’s cut down her work hours and intensified her training to two days a week plus some weekend days.
As a result, her downtime has consisted of chilling at home “which saves a lot of money because I’m not going out,” she chuckled.
In the afternoon, I had the pleasure of taking up my cocktail bar reservation at the restaurant services workshop.
I was served a delightfully refreshing strawberry and lime non-alcoholic cocktail by the Irish competitor Kate Ryan.
Ryan had to create her own cocktail, which she named Galway Girl, after her hometown and had pineapple juice, sugar syrup and topped up with sparkling water.
Sadly, it would’ve been a conflict of interest if Team UK competitor Ruby Pile served us but I hear her cocktail serving task yesterday went to plan.
I also caught up with Harry Scolding’s parents taking pictures of Team UK on the competition floor.
Meanwhile, Harry Scolding’s parents Katie and Lee, who own and run a hairdressing business, said it is an “honour” being the parents of a WorldSkills UK champion. Scolding, a Solihull College learner, is competing in the joinery skill and has four days to complete one building project.
“I’m not surprised that my son has got himself there, because he’s got a lot of determination and drive, and we’re just hoping he’s going to do really well in his competition,” Lee Scolding said.
Skills on the global agenda
Today also marked the last day of the WorldSkills Conference, which is happening in tandem with the competition and brought together policymakers, industry leaders, education providers, and young professionals to discuss barriers and opportunities of vocational education systems in their respective countries.
Yesterday, one session explored the bias and systemic oppression limiting women entering STEM subjects.
Team UK has 10 women in this year’s cohort, something that WorldSkills UK has been attempting to improve over the years, though CEO Ben Blackledge told FE Week that it will take some years for its work on improving ethnic diversity and other minority group diversities to filter through.
Today’s agenda held a session discussing why millions of young people are failing to acquire foundation skills.
Mihle Mvelakubi, WorldSkills Champions Trust representative for Africa, told delegates that he was failing his school subjects before college in South Africa. After joining a school of skills to learn bricklaying, he was told by college administrators that they did not accept learners from skills schools, as there was a high dropout rate.
Mvelakubi passed all of his subjects after retaking exams and ended up in the top 10 in his class and ended up winning in WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017. He now works for the largest manufacturer in South Africa.
“I was building my future by laying one brick at a time,” he said.
Freya Thomas Monk, managing director of vocational qualifications & training at Pearson, said one of the lessons from Mvelakubi’s story was that foundation skills has to be seen in conjunction with academic and technical subjects.
“When we look at the definition of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and how we see the skills underlying it, we see transferable skills to be really key part of this. They cover cognitive, social, emotional skills.,” she said.
“I very much hear about all of the skills you’ve built and have around problem solving, around managing yourself, around interpersonal skills, affecting effective leadership, communication,” she told Mvelakubi. “[They] are absolutely key to success and go alongside and a part of a TVET education, alongside the technical skills.”
Pearson is the sponsor of Team UK.
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FE Week is the media partner of WorldSkills UK and Team UK.
