Prospect runs first skills contest led by unions

Scientists union Prospect took a leading role in last month’s WorldSkills London 2011 event, a vocational skills contest which brings together almost 1,000 young people from 51 different countries and regions to compete to become the best in their chosen trade.

The union, which represents over 34,000 engineering and science specialists in government and the private sector, worked with a range of partners to devise an environmental science competition within the WorldSkills event. It involved five teams from the UK and one from the Netherlands who had to: design a sustainable energy solution for an island community; build a renewable energy generator and present a report to judges justifying their solution and winning over members of the local community.

Prospect’s head of research, Sue Ferns, said: “It is a great opportunity for young people to show prospective employers that they represent the future of engineering and science.”

Supporters of the competition include the TUC’s learning and skills organisation, Unionlearn, whose director Tom Wilson said: “This fantastic event is a great way to showcase and to reward young people for their vocational skills. It is an opportunity to recognise that excelling in making things and doing things is just as valuable as academic ability. That is why Unionlearn supports quality apprenticeships in the workplace.”

Unionlearn is also in partnership with Prospect in a bid to have the Environmental Science competition as part of the next WorldSkills competition in Leipzig in 2013.