World class skills excellence

Two Scottish students have won coveted medallions for excellence at WorldSkills Lyon, an international competition for the recognition and promotion of the value of skills.

WorldSkills UK, a four nations partnership between education, industry and UK governments, uses the insight it gains from competitions such as WorldSkills Lyon to advance high quality training standards.

Over 1,500 young people from 69 countries competed over four days of tough competition in 62 different skills in an event watched by over 250,000 spectators.

Four Scottish competitors – Nathan Young, Finley Graham, Yasmin George and Danny McBean – were amongst the 31 young people competing for Team UK. Nathan and Finley were both awarded medallions for excellence.

Nathan Young, from East Kilbride received his training in Mechanical Engineering and Computer-Aided Design at New College Lanarkshire and the University of the West of Scotland. Finley Graham, whose training has been provided by the City of Glasgow College and Glasgow Caledonian University, comes from Airdrie and competed in the IT Network Systems Administration category.

Ben Blackledge, Chief Executive, WorldSkills UK said:

“High quality skills development is crucial to growing the economy, and Team UK’s medal-winning performance in front of a global audience sends a strong message that the UK is a world-class place to invest, develop talent and create jobs.”