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Scottish WorldSkills ceremony
28/10/2008
More than 60 young students from across Scotland were today recognised for their skills in a variety of industries at a national WorldSkills ceremony in Perth.
The young people - aged 16 to 23 - received their gold, silver and bronze medals in the UK Skills or related competitions from the Minister for Schools and Skills, Maureen Watt, and triple Olympic gold medal cycling champion, Chris Hoy.
Ms Watt said:
"We want to ensure our young people have the right skills to help them grow as individuals and help our economy to grow. This is particularly important in these tough economic times when we need to ensure our workforce is sufficiently skilled to meet the rapidly changing needs of businesses.
"These talented young students have shown that they have the ability, determination and drive to both succeed in the workplace and to help build a better future for themselves and for Scotland.
"I want to congratulate them and their tutors on their hard work. I hope that in receiving their medals from Chris Hoy that they too are inspired to continue to go for gold in the training for their future careers."
The competition covers skills in the following areas:
- Creative: art, acting, popular music
- Health and Personal Care: beauty therapy, hairdressing
- Construction : bricklaying, carpentry, joinery, painting and decorating, plastering, roof tiling and slating
- Engineering : CNC Milling and turning, mechatronics, automobile technology
- IT and Media : IT networking challenge - Cisco and Microsoft, radio studio production
Similiar competitions are run across the UK. Those with the highest scores in the heats will be selected to join the UK Skills squad for WorldSkills, the international competition which will next be held in Calgary in 2009.
WorldSkills competitions are organised by in the UK by UK Skills, a not-for-profilt company sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
Registration is now open for those interested in competing next year. Those under 23 and who are in education or training can take part by registering online at www.worldskillsuk.org.
The winners are as follows:
- Dean Stevens - electrical (gold) - SECTT/ND Barrett
- Richard Sagar - electrical (gold) - SECTT/Eden Electricals Ltd
- Rachael Kibbler - advanced art (gold) - Dundee College
- Kirsty MacDonald - advanced art (silver) - Dundee College
- Ross Lesslie - advanced art (bronze) - Dundee College
- Paul Abbey - automotive technology (gold) - Borders College
- Heather Stephen - intermediate beauty therapy (gold) - Moray College
- Cara McGechie - intermediate beauty therapy (silver) - Stevenson College
- Christina Pert - intermediate beauty therapy (bronze) - Elmwood College
- Sara Fellows - advanced beauty therapy (gold) - Moray College
- Michelle Hunter - advanced beauty therapy - nail technology: nail art (gold) - James Watt College
- Douglas Cunnison - senior bricklaying (gold) - Edinburgh's Telford College
- Allan Douglas - senior bricklaying (silver) - Aberdeen College
- Andrew Scott - senior bricklaying (bronze) - Borders College
- Alan Falconer - new entrant bricklaying (gold) - Inverness College
- Cameron Higgins - new entrant bricklaying (silver) - South Lanarkshire College
- Stefan Mills - new entrant bricklaying (bronze) - Forth Valley College
- Matthew Campbell - senior carpentry (gold) - West Lothian College
- Edward Cole - senior carpentry (silver) - Ayr College
- Roy Coutts - senior carpentry (bronze) - Moray College
- Fraser McLean - advanced CNC Turning (gold) - Anniesland College
- Michael Hedberg - advanced CNC Turning (silver) - Anniesland College
- Michael Stewart - advanced creative writing (silver) - Newbattle Abbey College
- Liane Williamson - intermediate hairdressing (gold) - Reid Kerr College
- Jenna Crossan - intermediate hairdressing (silver) - Reid Kerr College
- Jung-ae Potts - intermediate hairdressing (bronze) - Reid Kerr College
- Jenna Smillie - advanced hairdressing (gold) - Reid Kerr College
- Kirsten Adams - advanced hairdressing (silver) - Reid Kerr College
- Yvonne Watt - advanced hairdressing (bronze) - Banff & Buchan College
- Peter Nagy -advanced ICT Networking Challenge CISCO (gold) - Stevenson College
- Calum La Croix - advanced ICT Networking Challenge - Microsoft (gold) - Stevenson College
- Barry Gray - advanced ICT Networking Challenge - Microsoft (bronze) - Dumfries & Galloway College
- David Broatch - senior joinery (gold) - Dumfries & Galloway College
- James Lang - senior joinery (silver) - North Glasgow College
- Chris Eltershank - senior joinery (bronze) - Angus College
- Scott Alexander - advanced mechatronics (silver) - Forth Valley College
- Ross Fraser - advanced mechatronics (silver) - Forth Valley College
- David Ingram - advanced mechatronics (bronze) - Forth Valley College
- Ryan McAnish - advanced mechatronics (bronze) - Forth Valley College
- Rachel Terras - senior painting & decorating (gold) - Borders College
- Debbie Greig - senior painting & decorating (silver) - Aberdeen College
- Steven Barthorpe - senior painting & decorating (bronze) - Angus College
- Sean McCafferty - new entrant painting & decorating (gold) - Forth Valley College
- Lee Smeaton - new entrant painting & decorating (silver) - Angus College
- John Getchell - new entrant painting & decorating (bronze) - South Lanarkshire College
- Nick Cheales - advanced performing arts: acting (gold) - Edinburgh's Telford College
- Leah Moorhouse - advanced performing arts: acting (silver) - Stow College
- Rebecca Jackson - advanced performing arts: acting (bronze) - Stow College
- Amy Watt - advanced performing arts: acting (bronze) - Edinburgh's Telford College
- Kirsty Leith - advanced performing arts: musical theatre (silver) - Edinburgh's Telford College
- Ross Cunningham - advanced performing arts: popular music (silver) - Aberdeen College (team)
- Scott Ross - advanced performing arts: popular music (silver) - Aberdeen College
- David Scott - advanced performing arts: popular music (silver) - Aberdeen College
- Keith Raine - advanced performing arts: popular music (silver) - Aberdeen College
- Scott Davidson - senior plastering (silver) - Glasgow Metropolitan College
- Scott Wright - senior plastering (bronze) - South Lanarkshire College
- Paul Widdowson - senior plastering (bronze) - Dumfries & Galloway College
- Scott Reid - plumbing (gold - Moray College
- Jason Cameron - plumbing (silver) - Aberdeen College
- Alan Dudley - advanced radio studio production (silver) - Edinburgh's Telford College
- Bonnie Fairbrass - advanced radio studio production (silver) - Edinburgh's Telford College
- Catriona Fegan - advanced radio studio production (silver) - Edinburgh's Telford College
- Michael Allan - intermediate restaurant service (bronze) - Aberdeen College
- Martin Quinn - advanced roof tiling & slating (gold) - South Lanarkshire College
- Gary Riley - advanced roof tiling & slating (gold) - South Lanarkshire College
- Andrew Johnston - Welding - Gold - Doosan Babcock/SkillWeld
Four of the listed winners were unable to attend because they were competing in the UK final of the SkillPlumb and SkillElectric competitions. They include: plumbing (SkillPlumb) - Scott Reid and Jason Cameron, and in Electrical Installation (SkillElectric), Dean Stevens from Meadowbank and Richard Sagar, from Langholm.