Inspiring Skills Excellence at Grŵp Llandrillo Menai
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai welcomed the Inspiring Skills Wales Excellence team to its Llangefni campus during a Skills Competition Wales heat last week.
The team, including Welsh TV presenter Mari Lovegreen, interviewed and filmed students and staff in preparation for the Skills Wales awards evening in March, where the winners will be announced during a live broadcast.
Coleg Menai’s Engineering students based at the Llangefni campus had the opportunity to compete at Skills Competition Wales after a hiatus of two years due to the global pandemic. This year, all competitors had to remain on their own individual sites rather than travel to a central location to compete, as was the norm.
28 learners from across all disciplines of the Llangefni Engineering department took part in the following competitions: Heavy and Light Vehicle Technology, Welding; Milling and Turning CNC; Team Challenge Electronics, Mechanical Engineering CAD and Industrial Robotics.
Skills Competition Wales aims to raise the profile of skills in Wales and offers students, trainees and apprentices in Wales a chance to challenge, benchmark and raise their skills by taking part in competitions across a range of sectors.
Funded by the Welsh Government and run by a dedicated network of colleges, work-based learning providers and employer-led organisations, it consists of a series of local skills competitions, aligned to World Skills and the needs of the Welsh economy.
Skills competition Wales delivers 61 competitions across a variety of sectors and skill areas.
Skills Competition Wales aims to help young people across the nation to achieve excellence by supporting vocational learning through skills competitions and the ‘Turn Your Hand’ initiative, thus eventually helping young people to excel in the world of work.
Aaron Peel, deputy Engineering manager at Coleg Menai, said: “Our learners are given every opportunity to succeed whilst studying at the Llangefni campus. We have a state-of-the-art department here, with industry-standard technology at their fingertips.
“We were also lucky enough to also have the Inspiring Skills Wales Excellence team here whilst we were in competition to see what it takes to compete in the skills competitions.
“Their attendance will help organisations to develop a programme which will give more young people, irrespective of background, better work and life opportunities, and help boost economic productivity.”
