14.01.2025

Industry urged to back growing WorldSkills

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) is encouraging employers to get behind “a big push for skills” with the launch of the 2025 WorldSkills competition.

Sponsors are being invited to sign up this month ahead of entries opening in February for the world’s largest skills competition designed to celebrate and showcase emerging technical talent.

WorldSkills involves more than 80 countries and is a partnership between the education sector, businesses, and governments. It was set up over 60 years ago to help young people develop through competitions-based training, assessment, and benchmarking to support economic growth and create employment opportunities.

BESA is an organising partner of the WorldSkills UK competition that celebrates emerging and existing technical skills in the refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) category. UK students and apprentices aged 16 and above are now being invited to put their skills to the test and could ultimately win a place on the UK team that will compete at the 2028 international Skills Olympics in Japan.

Prestige
WorldSkills said it was helping the UK become a ‘skills economy’ by “boosting the prestige of technical and professional education by embedding world-class training standards…to help drive investment, jobs, and economic growth”.

The qualifying competitions are run across sectors including digital, creative, and engineering, and BESA will deliver a range of tests, designed by industry experts, for the RAC competitors.

“This is an amazing opportunity for young people in our industry to showcase and celebrate their skills in a prestigious international competition. As well as promoting themselves, they will also be demonstrating to the world the importance of the RAC sector and the breadth and depth of talent we have here in the UK,” said BESA’s Head of Skills and Policy Stuart Rattray.

“Our corporate supporters can also demonstrate their commitment to developing the deep pool of talent our industry needs to thrive. These ‘Olympic class’ challenges are the ultimate test of practical skills and technical knowledge working across our rapidly expanding range of technologies and solutions.”

The refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) competition is a nine-month process, including regional heats and intensive training, before the ultimate test of the national finals in November, which will be held in Wales.

Entrants will have to demonstrate their skills and knowledge through tasks inspired by real life industry scenarios. They will be tested on digital programming, fault finding/diagnosis, fabrication, service, maintenance, and record keeping as well as their ability to charge equipment and recover refrigerants in line with environmental legislation.

Candidates must be working towards a level 3 qualification or equivalent in refrigeration/air conditioning/heat pumps or have achieved a qualification within the last 12 months.

Those students and apprentices who excel in the national finals could then be selected to join WorldSkills UK’s international development and training programme, which can lead to them being selected for Team UK.

“The competition does more than showcase and develop talent,” said Rattray. “It also helps to identify skills gaps in specific areas and can make great strides towards addressing them thanks to its close links with government.”

Ben Blackledge, Chief Executive of WorldSkills UK, said that taking part in the competition “can be a lifechanging experience that develops crucial skills and boosts future earnings”.

Options
“Our competitions develop the personal and technical skills that employers are looking for in new recruits. I would encourage everyone to have a look at the many options available and sign up to compete.”

He added that 87% of previous entrants said taking part had improved their technical knowledge and 79% had developed better personal and employability skills.

This year’s competition consists of three main stages: An online entry stage, qualifiers at training facilities across the UK, and the final at a central location in Wales. As well as taking part in the competition, entrants will be given access to training days and factory tours through the event partners and will be introduced to BESA’s NextGen Network – the growing hub for young engineers across the building services sector.

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