GE Aviation Wales nurtures talent through skills competition

Nick Blakeney, managing director at GE Aviation Wales
Nick Blakeney, managing director at GE Aviation Wales

GE Aviation Wales is nurturing and supporting young people by encouraging their talented employees to compete in the world’s largest skills competition – WorldSkills.

WorldSkills is designed to celebrate the achievements of young people across a variety of vocational skills and hosts competition-led training, assessment and benchmarking against other countries around the world.

In Wales, competitions start at a local and regional level through the Inspiring Skills Excellence in Wales project, with a select number of competitors progressing through to the UK national level before a final cohort of competitors are selected to compete for Team UK at the WorldSkills International finals.

Nick Blakeney, managing director at GE Aviation Wales, is a longstanding champion of developing talent through apprenticeship programmes – a commitment that he pushes forward at GE Aviation Wales.

He explained: “Our first experience of WorldSkills was in 2019 when we had three apprentices make it to the UK final. Since then, we’ve been working closely with our further education partner, Coleg y Cymoedd, and are thrilled to announce that another team of three are committed to this year’s UK competition in the Manufacturing Team Challenge.

“The Manufacturing Team Challenge category allows the apprentices who enter to focus on developing their abilities in several skillsets including aircraft maintenance, welding and mechanical engineering; skills they bring right back into the workplace.

“We also have one current employee – Mike Jones – and one past employee – George Denman – who have both succeeded in winning a place in this year’s international finals. Mike and George were part of the original team back in 2019, and if all goes ahead, they will be able to demonstrate their excellence and skills against other nations to bring home gold for Team UK.

Mike Jones (far left) and George Denman (second right) with their tutor and teammate
Mike Jones (far left) and George Denman (second right) with their tutor and teammate

“Taking part in skills competitions such as WorldSkills has been a great way to boost our profile and has allowed us to put a real face and a human connection to the business; something that really resonates with our customers, particularly post-COVID when customer-business relationships are so crucial. Customers want to see and work with the best. They also want to develop relationships with partner companies that are committed to investing in people and developing talent for the future, and WorldSkills offers employers exactly that.

“I’d encourage any employer considering Skills Competition Wales, the Inspiring Skills Excellence in Wales project or WorldSkills UK to grab the opportunity with both hands.”

Inspiring Skills Excellence in Wales
www.inpiringskills.gov.wales

WorldSkills UK
www.worldskillsuk.org

GE Aviation
www.geaviation.com

Company

GE Aviation

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