A CHARITY is helping people across the West Midlands improve their skills during lockdown, to make them more attractive to employers and help drive an economic recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
WorldSkills UK, the education and skills charity, has been working with colleges, training providers and employers throughout the region to help apprentices and students continue training during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nearly 300 apprentices and students in the West Midlands, from organisations including 3M, North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College and Nova Training, registered to take part in this year’s virtual WorldSkills UK Competitions to enhance their current training.
They are learning skills such as Digital Media Production, Automotive Technology, Health and Social Care, 3D Digital Game Art, Cyber Security and Construction Metal Work, which will help to fast-track their careers.
To support them, the charity is delivering a series of online coaching sessions with its alumni, young people who have previously trained with WorldSkills UK and who are now pursuing their chosen careers.
The competitions will enable entrants to develop their skillset and mindset, building their confidence and potential to help employers in the West Midlands towards recovery and future economic growth.
And ten young people from the region are also training remotely with WorldSkills UK to vie for a place in Team UK, to compete against the best of the rest of the world for medals in the European and global skills competitions finals next year.
EuroSkills will take place in Austria in January and WorldSkills, known as the ‘skills Olympics’, will take place in Shanghai, creating a platform to showcase world-class young talent that is being developed in the West Midlands.
Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann OBE, the chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said: “The commitment from the young people in the West Midlands to continue with their training, despite the challenging circumstances, is fantastic and demonstrates the value that they are placing on getting the highest-quality apprenticeships and technical education.
“I believe that young women and men with the right skills-set and mindset will continue to succeed in the tough times ahead because they will have the competitive edge employers will be looking for.
“It is our responsibility to ensure we support more young people to develop the higher-level skills that will help them get the best start in work and life and drive forward the West Midlands’ productivity and economy.”
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and Chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority, said: “Our young people are our future and we need their contribution to rebuild our region’s economy in the longer term after the Covid-19 crisis, so it’s critical that we help them gain the skills that employers will need over the coming years.
“We are doing this through a number of initiatives, such as the Apprenticeship Levy Transfer Fund, in which large employers use their unspent levy to fund apprenticeship training at local small and medium-sized enterprises.
“WorldSkills UK is a great opportunity for our most talented young people to showcase the best of the West Midlands, further develop their skillset and increase their confidence.”
Visit www.worldskillsuk.org to download WorldSkills UK’s digital training resources.
