It would be difficult to find someone who believes in the mission of WorldSkills more than Joan Scott. By day, she’s an assistant principal at The Trafford College Group; by night (and weekends, holidays and any other spare time she has), she’s on a mission to make the North West the most productive region in the country when it comes to WorldSkills activity.
Having witnessed the magic of WorldSkills in Abu Dhabi in 2017, Scott is convinced about the transformational impact that skills competitions can have on a young person’s life - inside and outside the workplace.
At The Trafford College Group, Scott encourages and supports staff to use the competitions to enhance teaching, learning and assessment.
She coordinates the skills competition steering group for Greater Manchester Colleges Group which, in turn, delivers an annual series of competitions involving 700 students across 50 competitions spanning 10 different sectors. These events are hosted in 10 colleges and are clearly having an impact: in the past two years, the number of WorldSkills UK registrations from these colleges increased by 130 per cent.
Each year, Scott hosts two national education forums for beauty therapy lecturers. Indeed, Team UK competitors have won gold for beauty therapy at three consecutive EuroSkills and WorldSkills contests.
The judges called Scott the epitome of an unsung hero. They said: “Joan Scott is a grassroots champion who has worked really hard locally to ensure access. She will be invisible to many people but, for those who know how things get done, she is a hero.”
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