09 January 2025
|
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.
The 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.
For more information about the competition and how to enter, visit BESA’s WorldSkills Competition page. Details of sponsorship opportunities are available here.
