More than 400 of the UK’s most talented students and apprentices have been named as finalists for this year’s WorldSkills UK national competitions, where they’ll battle it out to be crowned the country’s best across dozens of skilled trades.
WorldSkills UK revealed the finalists participating in 47 events at the national competitions in November. As well as gold, silver and bronze medals, winners get a chance to represent the UK at the global “skills Olympics” in Japan in 2028.
This year’s finals will be held in colleges and universities across south Wales for the first time after Greater Manchester passed over the baton.
Wales has a strong association with Team UK and sent three competitors to last year’s WorldSkills event in Lyon.
View the full list of WorldSkills UK 2025 national finalists
The 417 finalists were selected from nearly 7,900 young people who registered to showcase their skills and competed in regional events.
The national finals will take place at three FE colleges and two university campuses from November 26 to 28.
The 47 competitions include aircraft maintenance, welding and horticulture.
Medallists will be announced at an awards ceremony on the evening of November 28 at the International Convention Centre.
Foundation skills medallists will get their awards at a ceremony at Cardiff and Vale College earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, WorldSkills UK has made online benchmarking resources accessible to competitors on its Learning Lab platform.
Ben Blackledge, CEO of WorldSkills UK said: “With employers all over the UK crying out for high-quality skills this is a fantastic opportunity for hundreds of learners to show they are ready for work. I can’t wait to see the finalists in action.”
Welsh Government skills minister Jack Sargeant hailed the move of the national competitions to Wales as “thrilling”.
“We look forward to showing off our beautiful country to visiting teams while our hard-working competitors prepare to demonstrate their training,” he said. “I’m keen to see our representatives excel once again across a range of disciplines on their home soil.”
Nicola Gamlin, principal at Coleg Gwent, said: “We are incredibly proud to be a host venue for the WorldSkills UK National Finals 2025. It is an honour for Coleg Gwent to host this prestigious event, which showcases the very best of technical education and skills excellence across the UK.
“Congratulations to all the finalists who have reached this stage. It’s a remarkable achievement and a reflection of your hard work and determination.”
Yearning for Herning
The next international competition is EuroSkills 2025, which will be hosted in Herning, Denmark, in September.
The event will bring together 600 young professionals from 33 countries across the continent for a smørrebrød of competitions.
The Team UK line-up for Herning was announced in April, with 19 apprentices and students selected who are currently undergoing an intense training schedule.
Last month FE Week revealed WorldSkills UK’s government grant would be trimmed by 15 per cent for 2025-26.
WorldSkills UK told FE Week the cuts will not affect the national competitions. But it will cull some competitions at next year’s 48th WorldSkills international competition in Shanghai, China.
Contests being ditched include logistics and freight forwarding, software testing, and cloud computing.
It will also cancel its international skills summit, pause its equity, diversity and inclusion heroes awards, reduce its “international insights work” and scale back its careers resources.
However, the UK will continue to participate in the bricklaying competition in Shanghai, seven years after the UK last competed.
Squad UK for Shanghai has already been chosen, and training is underway.
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