Trafford College students have dominated the leader board at the 2021 World Skills Competition with two students winning medals as part of the eight winners from the Greater Manchester Colleges Group.
The World Skills UK is a charity that aims to showcase the very best of those undertaking apprenticeships and technical education whilst raising the standards within the sector, to help young people and their employers succeed. The Competition selects and trains young people to represent the UK at international competitions.
The Competition named fifteen finalists across the Greater Manchester Colleges Group (GMCG) across a range of categories including, Joinery, Plastering, Graphic Design, Mechanical Engineering CAD, Woodworking Foundation Skills, I.T Support Technician and Confectionary & Patisserie. More than 3,075 young students and apprentices took part in the World Skills UK Competition, including Trafford College Group students Toby Hallam and Lucy Potts.
Competing Students
Lucy was able to bag a bronze medal in Confectionary & Patisserie. Lucy credits her achievements in the competition partly to her Level 2 Patisserie course at Trafford College. Lucy said, “Some of the key skills I gained from college in which helped me to achieve my Bronze medal were firstly, Time Management. This helped me most as it enabled me to set myself deadlines and push myself to present my best possible work in the timescale, improving each time as I practiced.”
Toby Hallam, who is currently on his apprenticeship at Exyte Hargreaves, competed in the IT Technician Support category and managed to take home the bronze medal for his work. Toby said, “I enjoyed the challenge of the competition because it involved using different software and other things I haven’t worked on before. But my IT Infrastructure Technician level 3 course at Trafford College prepared me for other tasks, for example involving Virtual Box which I’d already been introduced to.”
Assistant Principal, Joan Scott said, “We are extremely proud of all of the students who took part in the competition and congratulate them on their fantastic achievements so far. Our nine colleges have worked seamlessly during what has been a very challenging time for students, faculty and employers across the region. Hard work, dedication and resilience has delivered fantastic results in 2021 and we look forward to even more success in 2022.”
Recruitment for the next competition is already well underway with the World Skills registrations set to open in March 2022.