18 September 2024
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Luke Haile, a refrigeration technician at Lightfoot Defence, was awarded the bronze medal in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning at WorldSkills Lyon 2024, as Team UK finished in 10th place.
Selected, mentored and trained by WorldSkills UK, Haile has been recognised as one of the most skilled young technicians in the world by leading global industry experts. He competed against 23 other young refrigeration engineers from around the world and finished third behind gold medallists Kang Ruan, of China, and Sz-Yuan Chen, of Chinese Taipei.
Haile, who won the ACR Journal Trainee of the Year in 2021, said: “This is absolutely life-changing; my success at WorldSkills will really pave the way forward for my career. The week has been intense, working so hard in the time we were given, but I did myself proud. Thank you to my employer Lightfoot Defence, who have been with me since the start of my competition journey, my family and Mark, my WorldSkills UK training manager and wider training team for all their support.”
More than 1500 young people from 69 countries competed over four days of competition in 62 different skills in Lyon, with the event watched by over 250,000 spectators. Team UK finished in 10th place.
WorldSkills UK, a four-nations partnership between education, industry and UK governments, uses the insight it gains from participating in the international WorldSkills Competition to embed world-class training standards across the UK. Pearson, the world’s lifelong learning company is the official partner of Team UK for WorldSkills Lyon 2024.
Ben Blackledge, Chief Executive, WorldSkills UK said: “Congratulations to Luke on his medal-winning performance, he should be very proud of his success. It is fantastic to be in the top ten once again at WorldSkills. It’s brilliant to see that our continued focus on raising the quality and standard of skills is delivering, not only for Team UK but the country as a whole. High quality skills development is crucial to growing the economy, and Team UK’s medal-winning performance in front of a global audience sends a strong message that the UK is a world-class place to invest, develop talent and create jobs.”
The next WorldSkills Competition will take in 2026 in Shanghai, China.
