They are among the 13 young people from Northern Ireland selected for the 94 strong Team UK squad. They now begin an 18-months of intensive specialist training in a bid to secure their place on WorldSkills Team UK and with it, a chance to compete against their peers from over 80 nations at the international finals in Lyon in September 2024.
The squad will be guided through their training by a team of highly skilled trainers, industry experts, former medal winners and performance coaches to help them prepare for the pressure of competing at such a high level. The final team to represent the UK on the international stage will be announced in the spring of 2024.
Northern Regional College has enjoyed considerable success at WorldSkills UK. In 2021, the College had a clean sweep in the Industrial Robotics category and in 2022, the College won gold and bronze medals in the same category.
Last year, two students who studied engineering at Northern Regional College and who have since progressed to Ulster University to do an engineering degree, were selected for Team UK.
Adam Kirkpatrick and Cameron Middleton, who were silver medallists at the WorldSkills UK national finals in 2021, were selected as part of the 35 strong Team UK to in the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition (WSC2022SE) in Luxembourg in November 2022. Adam was also selected to a Team UK Role Model.
Northern Regional College is the only FE college in Northern Ireland to have four representatives on the UK squad. The other Northern Ireland members of the squad are: Ben Priestley and David McKeown, Riverpark Training, Autobody Repair; Georgia Abernethy, Belfast Met and Ronan Kerr, South West College, Cooking; Wiktoria Kurkowska and Anastasiya Kovtun, Southern Regional College, Chemical Laboratory Technology; Andrew Reain, South Eastern Regional College and Andrew McCann, South West College, Plumbing & Heating; and Isaac Bingham, Obin Specialist Joinery, Cabinet Making.
Heather Cousins, Head of Skills and Education at the Department for the Economy, congratulated the local members selected for the UK squad: “This is fantastic news. For Northern Ireland to gain 13 places on the UK squad demonstrates, once again, the strength of the talent we have here. Each one of the locally selected competitors can be very proud of their achievements.
“The success of all the squad members is evidence of what can be achieved on the national and international stage and I wish the whole squad the very best as they go forward for further specialist training.”