Skills Taster for Colleges in Wales
Welsh college staff and students attended a Have a Go event at Coleg Sir Gâr where they had the chance to try their hand at some more unusual skills in a bid to encourage more students to enter the national Skills Competition Wales.
A series of events backed by the Welsh Government, Skills Competition Wales is designed to celebrate vocational skills and create a highly skilled Welsh workforce for the future.
The event showcased the Welsh Government’s investment in a wide range of high-tech equipment including an educational robotic kit, a hydraulics trainer, green technology teaching set and an animation package. These state-of-the-art tools are intended to engage young people with vocational training, and will be taken to schools, college open days and skills events across the country.
Eirian Richards, 17, from Coleg Sir Gâr who attended the event said he really enjoyed the experience, especially exploring Green Technology and programming robots for the robotics challenge
Eirian said: “Although I’m studying Electrical Engineering it’s been fascinating finding out about other skill areas. I’d definitely encourage those that haven’t chosen their career pathway just yet to have a go at these activities, it’s a fun way of learning.”
Hosted by the Inspiring Skills Excellence in Wales team, attendees had the opportunity to have a go at the various experiential activities throughout the day and ask Skills Ambassador for Wales, Barry Liles, about the equipment and the benefits of up skilling young people in Wales.
Barry said: “There has been significant evidence of the benefits of exposing young people to experiential learning through these Have a Go activities, which will hopefully encourage them to go on and represent our country at a national competition.
“When people think about vocational training they often assume it’s only for trades such as hairdressing and mechanics, but events like today’s ‘Have a Go’ session will hopefully be a way of engaging with younger people to show the huge range and diversity of skills development that is available in Wales.
“Skills needed in the workplace are constantly changing. If you had told me 10 years ago that we’d be using a robotics kit to train our students I’d have found it hard to believe but the skill sets that employers need are changing all the time, and so we need to do all we can to prepare our young people for the future workplace.”
Visit www.worldskillswales.org to find out more.
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