Swansea talent to compete in international skills competition

WorldSkills UK has announced that four Welsh competitors will be joining Team UK at the 46th WorldSkills competition in Shanghai, China 2022, with two hailing from West Wales.

WorldSkills supports young people across the world to take part in competition-led training, assessment, and benchmarking, with the competitors from national teams testing their ability to achieve world-class standards in an Olympic-style skills competition.

The finals in Shanghai are due to run from the 12th – 17th October, with the finalists competing to be the best in the world at their chosen skill. Welsh competitors are hoping to achieve medals in categories including Manufacturing Team Challenge and Industrial Economics.

The selection follows several rounds of competition and an intense training and development programme where young people from all over the country have been competing and training in different skills categories.

The international competition is the final stage in the WorldSkills journey – running every two years – and is the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world.

George Denman, 22, from Swansea, is competing in the Manufacturing Team Challenge category.

He said: “The competitions have allowed me to develop and broaden my skills and have encouraged my ambition to improve as a young engineer.

“It’s been an amazing achievement to be chosen as part of Team UK.”

Ben Lewis, 22, is another Swansea-based competitor who has made it through to Shanghai 2022. Competing in the Industrial Electronics category, he said: “I’ve loved taking part in the competitions; the biggest highlight has to be all of the extra training that we have been given.”

“It means a lot to be chosen for Team UK and to be given the opportunity to win a gold medal. It just goes to show that I’ve improved in my skill and that I’m good enough to compete internationally for Wales.”

Wales has previously taken 12 competitors to the WorldSkills international finals in the past few years, including Kazan and Abu Dhabi.

Minister for Economy Vaughan Gething said: “It’s fantastic to see so many Welsh competitors taking part in the international WorldSkills competitions. WorldSkills brings together some of the most creative, skilled, and driven young people in Wales.”

“It’s vital that we continue to invest in future generations and continue to provide opportunities for young people to showcase the exceptional talent we have in this country and bring back skills they learn to our Welsh businesses. I wish all of the competitors the very best of luck.”