The UK’s biggest national skills competition has been cancelled due to Covid-19, it has been announced today.
WorldSkills UK Live was due to take place at the NEC, Birmingham in November.
However, due to concerns around health and safety, the event - which annually attracts 70,000 people - has been cancelled this year. The WorldSkills UK charity also announced that the national cycle of skills competitions would be cancelled.
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It was announced in April that EuroSkills - due to take place in Graz, Austria in September - would be postponed until January 2021.
Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann, chief executive of WorldSkills UK, told Tes that the decision was “gutting” but that health and safety had to come first.
He said: “It’s been quite tough. But the overriding priority is everybody’s safety, that’s got to be the driver for the decision making. And so, working with our partners and consulting with them around the competition cycle, and talking with the NEC it all came into place.
“That said, of course, we do feel pretty gutted about not being able to run as normal this year. But by not doing it, it creates other opportunities for us to do things differently.”
In November, there will be an international skills summit taking place online, as well as virtual boot camps and digital resources for competitors.
Dr Bentley-Gockmann said that many more people could be reached digitally - and that this year was a test of WorldSkills UK’s digital credentials.
He said: “That’s one of the big exciting opportunities that comes from this. Going into next year, we’re planning to come back with Live in 2021, we will be exploring how we do a live physical event enhanced by a virtual showcase as well.”
