Listen
WorldSkills medals presented
03/11/2009
More than 90 young people from across the country - including Scotland's four WorldSkills medallists - were recognised for their skills achievements at a ceremony in Perth today.
This follows a hugely successful WorldSkills event in Calgary in September, where, had it been accounted for separately, Scotland would have had the best national score in the world.
The young people - aged 16 to 23 - were presented with gold, silver or bronze medals in the UK Skills or related competitions from the Minister for Schools and Skills, Keith Brown, and one of Scotland's most renowned long distanced runners, Liz McColgan.
Mr Brown said:
"I was delighted and proud to see young Scots leading the world in such a wide variety of skills in Calgary.
"For the first time, we had four young Scots taking part in the UK team at WorldSkills - each of whom brought home a medal. I congratulate them again on their magnificent achievements that, if they had been together in a Scottish team, would have produced the best national score in the world.
"We need to ensure our young people are supported to develop the skills they need to grow as individuals and contribute to Scotland's economy recovery when the time comes. I'm therefore delighted to be able to meet so many young people who have achieved such outstanding success in their skills competitions both at home and abroad.
"I also want to recognise the hard work of all those who have achieved success in regional and national skills competitions - young people who deserve recognition in their own right and who may become our WorldSkills competitors of the future.
"I hope that by sharing a stage with the WorldSkills competitions and one of Scotland's most outstanding athlete's, Liz McColgan, that they will feel motivated and inspired to continue to aim for the top in their chosen careers in the future."
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.
Similar competitions are run across the UK, with those with the highest scores in the heats being selected to join the UK Skills squad for the next WorldSkills competition due to take place in London in 2011.
In September, four young Scots - Mark Nevin, Katherine Watson, Martin Eusebi and Richard Sagar won medals at the WorldSkills 2009 competition in Calgary. They attended today's ceremony as special guests.
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.