Gloucester-based Clarkson Evans Training has been chosen to help prepare the UK electrical finalists for WorldSkills 2011. Chris Young and Scott Wigmore are competing to represent the UK in the world's largest skills competition, where young people from across the globe will compete to be crowned the best of the best in their chosen industry.
Chris and Scott, who both completed their apprenticeship training with Bridgwater College, have already demonstrated their high levels of expertise in the SkillElectric competition, organised by SummitSkills. The best competitors from this are then considered for WorldSkills.
The training manager for the UK electrical entry for WorldSkills is David Thomas, education and training manager at the Electrical Contractors Association. He explains why he chose Clarkson Evans to help prepare the finalists for the next stage of the competition: "Clarkson Evans Training has some of the best electrical facilities available for this type of specialist training, along with staff who've got considerable technical expertise and experience of teaching apprentices and electricians. It made perfect sense that they should be involved in such an important project."
Jon Dicken, head of training at Clarkson Evans, explained what the week of training at their centre involved: "Our challenge was to put the competitors through their paces with some of the toughest tests we could think of, taking them way beyond the skills you'd normally expect of a newly qualified electrician. They both did exceptionally well and I am confident that whoever represents the UK will do us all proud."
The WorldSkills competition takes place every two years and has been running since 1953. This year's event is taking place from 5-8 October at Excel London. Around 150,000 visitors are expected to watch around 1,000 competitors from 50 nations as they compete in 45 skill areas over four days. More information can be found at www.worldskillslondon2011.com.