A Trafford College student is amongst an elite group of young people chosen to represent the UK on the world stage as part of the prestigious WorldSkills competition.
WorldSkills is a movement of over 80 countries supporting young people across the globe via competitions-based training, assessment, and benchmarking, ultimately testing their ability to achieve world-class standards in a biennial ‘skills Olympics’.
Ben Metcalfe, 20, who studied pastry and cooking at Trafford College is part of Team UK who will travel to Shanghai to compete against peers worldwide over the intense four-day competition in October.
Ben said, ‘I have learnt so much over the last few years from competing and going through the WorldSkills UK programme. To be recognised on a national level for my skills as part of Team UK is something I am extremely proud of. The support I have had from the college, my tutors and WorldSkills helped me to land my dream job. I am now a Pastry Chef at Harrods in London, possibly the most well-known department store in world and I’m enjoying every minute of it.’
Trafford College, which is part of The Trafford College Group, and a WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence for the Greater Manchester area also recently posted the highest number of student nominations in the country for this year’s competitions, underlining its commitment to providing excellence in Technical Education.
James Scott, Principal and Chief Executive of The Trafford College Group (TCG) said, ‘I’m so proud to see that our sustained belief and passion in the transformative nature of WorldSkills UK has resulted in TCG having the most registrations nationally. Two years ago, we became one of the first WorldSkills UK Centres of Excellence with a drive and ambition to embed and share great practice in technical pedagogy through the opportunities provided by being part of skills competitions.’
Scott added, ‘Encouraging and supporting our students to excel in their chosen field of expertise is part of our culture at TCG, enabling them to go from ‘competence to excellence’ and as a result place them high in demand with employers. I am also delighted that Ben, who has been part of this journey with us for some years now has been chosen to represent the UK as part of such an elite team.’
Ben’s journey, along with that of the 38 other members of Team UK, can be followed via the worldskillsuk.org website as they aim to showcase Technical Education at its very best along with the ambition to better the 12th placed ranking achieved at the last event held in 2018 before the coronavirus pandemic.
