WorldSkills London 2011 - Best of British
Last week, WorldSkills London 2011 saw 1000 young, skilled professionals from over 52 countries compete to be named the ‘best of the best’ in their chosen skill. The nail-biting competition was watched by 150,000 visitors, and is the largest international skills competition in the world. This was the 41st WorldSkills competition and the third time it has been hosted in the UK. It is also the third time we have had students competing!
Former Chichester College student, Chris Wallis, was required to produce a complex cabinet made from English Oak to a very high specification; featuring veneers, using a range of joints including mortise and tenon, finger, dowel, biscuit, mitres, halving joints and dovetails. As part of their project tasks, competitors had to set out, cut and make these joints in any form using hand tools, portable powered hand tools, or permitted woodworking machines to complete the design in under four days.
The Friday prior to the event, Olympic 100 metre relay gold medallist, Jason Gardener MBE, offered words of wisdom to Team UK as they sailed along the Thames towards ExCeL London. He swapped training techniques with the medal hopefuls who have spent the last eighteen months completing an intensive training programme, aimed at developing their technical skills and preparing them for the demands of competition.
The astonishing venue of ExCel London has over 90,000m2 of space, the equivalent of ten Wembley Stadium pitches, and it was truly amazing to behold so much young talent under one roof across such an array of subject areas. Every community and business in the UK thrives on skills, enterprise and inspiration. Hopefully, WorldSkills London 2011 will be the catalyst that sparks the ambitions of people across the country.
Skills including landscaping gardening, mobile robotics, aircraft maintenance, cabinetmaking, stonemasonry, bricklaying, cooking and fashion technology, were showcased, with many areas offering ‘have a go’ workshops. Brathay Trust, a charity which has mentored and developed Team UK, believes, “Competition raises the standard of skills to an international benchmark, improving job prospects for young people. The aggressive nature of competition prepares young people for the real world of work”.
Former competitors say they learn the ability to manage extreme time pressures, as well the ability to cope outside of their comfort zone. Simon Jack, BBC business presenter, declared, “These are socially useful skills, not use-less — like many of our financial services”.
Professor Lorna Unwin, chair in vocational education and deputy director of the ESRC research centre, evaluated, “Emphasis on HE has distracted from vocational education, but university fees have returned the focus to apprenticeships”, of which the government are very supportive, according to the National Apprenticeship Service.
16,000 people attended the Closing Ceremony at O2, Sunday evening, 9th October, including Chris’ family, lecturers and our own senior management team. This spectacular celebration was followed by the Big Farewell party, to send all competitors home in style.
Principal Shelagh Legrave said, “It was a huge honour to have a student representing the UK from Chichester and he did fantastically well!”
“Chris did us proud”, proclaimed lecturer and mentor, Christian Notley, “he narrowly missed out on a Medallion of Excellence, which he was very disappointed about. He did really well just to get into Team UK, and despite his disappointment it has been of huge personal benefit. Well done, Chris!”
WorldSkills is Here
On Friday, 30th September, Chris Wallis, international WorldSkills 2011 competitor in Cabinetmaking, attended a glamorous ‘Send Off’ reception taking the 43 competitors in Team UK on board the Dixie Queen down the Thames from Butler’s Wharf and delivering them to the competition venue.
The boat party was be a morale boosting occasion for all competitors, and an opportunity for partners and supporters to give each member of Team UK final messages of encouragement and support ahead of what could be the most important four days of their lives.
Chichester College’s Furniture department will also feature at the event with Joiners & Ceilers (no 41 City Livery Company), while the science department will showcase forensics and CSI, allowing passers by to create digital key rings with fingerprints and DNA samples.
Horticulture students from the college’s Brinsbury Campus have been invited to build a garden display, which will be on show throughout the week. ‘Sustainability Moderne’ is a unique concept bringing together aspects of contemporary and heritage garden design using living walls.
This is the third consecutive year that the college has had a student achieve a place on Team UK in WorldSkills, with another Furniture student, Luke Griffiths, highly commended in the 2009 finals held in Calgary, Canada. Chris won gold at SkillBuild UK 2009, after taking bronze in 2008.
The next generation of Chichester star cabinetmakers is already on the rise. Edward “Woody” Harringman took silver last week at the latest Skillbuild final and hopes to be next in line for WorldSkills along with classmate George Callow and first year, Alex Morley.
Chris Is In!
Chris Wallis, 21, former Chichester College Furniture apprentice has been selected to take part in a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent the UK at WorldSkills London 2011 in cabinet making.
WorldSkills London 2011, which takes place at ExCeL from 5-8 October 2011, will be the world’s largest international skills competition with young people from across the globe competing to be the ‘best of the best’. At the competition, 1000 competitors from over 50 countries will compete in 46 skill areas over four e
xciting days.
During WorldSkills 2011, Chris will take part in 22 hours of competition and will be judged on his level of skill, accuracy and speed in completing the tasks set.
To celebrate his inclusion in Team UK, Chris joined the 42 other members of the team at a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by HRH Prince Andrew.
Skills Minister John Hayes said, "Those representing the UK at Worldskills will play a hugely important role in bringing the value of vocational skills and practical learning to national attention. I offer my warm support and congratulations to every member of the team".
From now until WorldSkills London 2011 in October, Chris will be in training to prepare for the Competition supported by his training manager.
When asked about the competition, Chris replied, “There’s so much to do, you just have to go for it. You can’t stop and think about it too much. I don’t watch my competitors; I focus on what I’m doing and block out everything else”.
Chris, who has always enjoyed making things, competed in 2009 SkillBuild UK Cabinet Making, winning gold after taking bronze in 2008. He is greatly looking forward to competing internationally and has just received sponsorship from Trend - Routing Technology.
For a full list of Team UK members visit WorldSkills Team UK.
IN ADDITION All 3 of our showcase applications for the WorldSkills event in October have been accepted:
- Success in Fine Furniture Making in the ‘Heritage Feature Stage’ category
- Sustainability Moderne (Horticulture’s award winning garden) in the ‘Display’ category
- CSI Chichester - Crime Scene Skills in the ‘Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM)’
See Luke Griffiths, former student and previous winner talk about his experience: Luke WorldSkills.
Regional Rewards
Chichester smashed the Skillbuild regional final on the 26th April at Highbury College, taking all 3 medals for Cabinet Making! George Callow, 3rd year student, won gold, 2nd year Edward Harringman took silver and 1st year Alex Morley took bronze.
In Carpentry, Ben Shotter was awarded a bronze medal and Level 1 Diploma Painting and Decorating student, Richard Freshville, won gold in the Junior Painting competition. Congratulations to all medal winners.
Beautiful Finish
Keelie Adams, Amy Thair and Jade Humphrey competed in the Advanced Beauty category at the Wakefield regional finals for UK SKills, with Jade winning gold. A senior judge said the Jade had the X-factor, had been spotted as a real talent and may be trained for 2013 WorldSkills in Germany. Georgie 
Anselm, Amy Oram and Rose Pilich battled for Intermediate Level 2 and Rose won the silver medal.
Six Chichester students entered the 1st heat for UK Skills in Floristry at Guildford College, and Debbie Pooch from Level 2 came 2nd in the intermediate category against 15 other students. The brief was to make an arrangement for the after dinner show at The X Factor.