Semta, the sector skills council, has been nominated for WorldSkills UK Partner of the Year 2011, and launches a new environmental science challenge.
WorldSkills is the world’s foremost vocational skills contest. This year the event is being hosted in London’s Excel Centre and the final rounds of the competition begin in earnest today.
Fifty one countries are competing across 46 skills sets including an extensive range of challenges in manufacturing and engineering skills from robotics to CNC milling or CAD manipulation to industrial electronics in what has been termed the ‘skills Olympics.’
WorldSkills is expected to attract 150,000 visitors during its five-day reign at Excel and the skills jamboree will exhibit 1,000 registered competitors.
This unprecedented opportunity to raise the profile of vocational education and the prestige of manufacturing skills has been made possible by the dedication of the sponsors and partner orgnaisations which have encouraged entries and donated equipment or expertise in team coaching. Industry sponsors of the event include Festo, Bentley Motors, Mastercam, Fluke Corporation and many others.
The nomination of Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies, as potential partner of the year recognises the contribution the organisation has made to driving entries but is also indicative of the importance of manufacturing to the event overall. Just under 40% of the square footage of the event space at ExcCel – an impressive 35,000 m2 – will be dedicated to the engineering and manufacturing competitions and ‘Have a Go’ areas.
The nomination also follows on the work Semta have done to develop a new competition category for the WorldSkills institution. The new Environmental Science category will highlight the skills needed to excel in a low carbon economy and encourage youth engagement with the challenges of green manufacturing and engineering. Semta is to be an official sponsor of this category going forward.
Semta’s new category is demanding, aimed at students studying relevant subjects to NVQ level 3 and above.
Commenting on the nomination Philip Whiteman, chief executive of Semta said: “We are really proud to receive this nomination for WorldSkills UK Partner of the Year 2011, reflecting our work in dramatically increasing competition entries.” Since 2008 when it dedicated its support to the WorldSkills UK team Semta has encouraged entry numbers to rise from an embarrassing 12 to 335.
The final decision on WorldSkills 2011’s partner of the year will be announced at the WorldSkills UK Gold Awards Ceremony tomorrow.
To read more on why WorldSkills is such an important competition to global industry read The final countdown, an exclusive article written for The Manufacturer by Aiden Jones, CEO of WorldSkills UK.
The Manufacturer is proud to be the media partner to the Manufacturing Team Challenge at WorldSkills London 2011. To learn more about the event visit: www.worldskillslondon2011.com.
