Sorry, I missed it
Andy Sandford, editor of Engineering Capacity
I was in London last Sunday, fighting my way through the crowds on Oxford Street, when I saw a group of smiling young people dressed in matching tracksuits emblazoned with the WorldSkills logo.
Until that point I had more or less forgotten that, after a break of over 30 years, and for just the second time in their history, what used to be known as the ‘Skill Olympics’ was being held in London.
Held every two years, and a beacon of excellence in vocational training, the event brings together hundreds of skilled young people to compete before the public and test themselves against demanding international standards.
Thinking that this was something I should follow up and look out for in the press I looked WorldSkills 2011 London up on Google when I got home, only to find out that it had, in fact, just finished.
Compared to the relentless media onslaught of coverage for the ‘real’ Olympics, this event seems to have been almost completely ignored by the mainstream media (as well as the more forgetful specialist business media).
What a pity, as the example set by these highly motivated, hard-working and extremely talented youngsters would surely set a better example for developing minds than the self-regarding egotism of some of our ‘elite’ athletes.
Even without mainstream media coverage, more than 200,000 people from the UK visited the event and were inspired by teams from over 50 countries competing in disciplines as varied as floristry, car maintenance and CNC engineering.
The UK representatives put up a good show, with Gold medals coming in Plumbing & Heating, Bricklaying, Stonemasonry, Visual Merchandising and Cooking.
Overall, we tended to do quite well in the construction sector and in craft skills – and there is obviously no shortage of talent among our young people.
We didn’t do so well in the key areas relating to the manufacturing sector where the Far East – and, maybe more surprisingly, Brazil did rather well. But we did win Bronzes in CAD, Welding, and Automotive Technology as well as a Medal for Excellence in Mechatronics – so we are in there fighting our corner even if we are fishing in a smaller pond. Congratulations to all of the winners, medal winners and indeed everyone who took part. Even to get to the WorldSkills event requires world-class ability.
By the way, did you notice something strange in that first sentence? We are supposed to be in the middle of what the Governor of the Bank of England has called ‘the most serious financial crisis we've seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever’, and yet London’s main shopping street was crowded on a Sunday afternoon.
Those busy shoppers obviously hadn’t been watching the news or reading the papers.
Andy Sandford
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