Nescot Apprentice Chosen As Skills Olympian

Shane Carpenter, a student on our higher (degree) level apprenticeship with BAE Systems, has been chosen to represent Team UK at the 44^th WorldSkills Internationals in Abu Dhabi in October 2017. Following an elimination round last month at Trafford College, Manchester, Shane was selected as the sole UK competitor in the IT and Enterprise category.

Described as the Olympics of skills excellence and vocational education, WorldSkills are high-quality competitions run annually throughout the UK developing young people’s professional and technical skills to high levels of excellence, and enhance those attributes valued by employers. The finalists from these competitions are then chosen to represent Team UK. The prestigious WorldSkill competitions take place every other year with a new host country for each event, showcasing the excellent standards that exist in vocational education to the world.

Shane himself was thrilled to be chosen and stated “Being selected to represent the UK is an extraordinary feeling. All the hard work and dedication towards training and preparing for the competition. I am so excited to have made it, I still cannot believe I am representing the country as an IT Network Administrator and can’t wait to compete in Abu Dhabi. Nescot and BAE have been so helpful, I can’t thank them enough for the amount of time and resources given to me, especially Suresh as he has been the best tutor and has been with me all the way through. I am determined to make them and the whole UK proud in October.”

Shane, started his studies and journey to WorldSkills at Nescot as a 16-year-old level 3 student in 2012 and is a veteran of three national finals. He was selected for squad UK in 2015 and went through an intensive training programme over the last 2 years. On completion of his Level 3 programme he did so well that he secured a scholarship to Kings College University of London but opted instead to take a higher apprenticeship here at Nescot with BAE.

His tutor, Suresh Kamadchisundaram, said “Shane is a fantastic ambassador for Nescot and our higher apprenticeships scheme in Computing. He has worked relentlessly to get to where he is now by giving up many evening and weekends to work towards this goal and I am sure he will be a phenomenal success.”

Frances Rutter CEO and Principal of Nescot explained “I am very proud of Shane and his accomplishments, and Nescot are looking forward to supporting him and the rest of Team UK in October.”

NESCOT College is very proud of our students’ brilliant track record at WorldSkills UK. We have finished top of the leaderboard two times in the last three years, earning the College the coveted title of ‘Best in England’.

The WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi will take place from October 14 to 19.

Hear Shane talk about his apprenticeship and lead up to selection at World Skills: