To qualify for the Worldskills UK Live Competition, they had to overcome the challenge from the cream of other talented young apprentices and students from all over Northern Ireland in a series of College competitions and regional competition qualifiers.
Mechatronics lecturer at Northern Regional College, Mark Maginty knows what it is like to compete at national level in Mechatronics skills competitions. In 2010, he competed in the Northern Ireland finals and at the UK National finals (then called UK Skills), he progressed to the European finals in Portugal. The following year, he competed in the WorldSkills national finals in London and was awarded a Medallion of Excellence.
After completing an apprenticeship in Electro-Technical Installation and an HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Northern Regional College, Mark went onto complete a BEng in Electronic Systems from Portsmouth University, followed by a Post Graduate Certificate in Further and Higher Education at Ulster University. He is now back at Northern Regional College but as a lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Lecturer.
Mark says the experience of competing in the Worldskills finals really helped his career and encouraged him to stay involved with the work of WorldSkills UK. He was Assistant UK Expert for Mechatronics for WorldSkills Leipzig 2013 and the UK Expert for Industrial Control at WorldSkills São Paulo 2015.
Mark said: “I became a lecturer because I wanted to help young people have the same training and career opportunities that I had when I was an apprentice. From my own experience, I know if you want to succeed in your career, getting involved with WorldSkills UK is a must which is why I promote the competition to all my students.”
Congratulating the students on making it through to next month’s final showdown in front of an estimated 70,000 spectators in the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, Vincent Taggart, Vice-Principal for Teaching and Learning at Northern Regional College agreed that competitions are an excellent way for students to enhance their skills and knowledge.
“The Worldskills UK Live Competition provides the perfect platform for our students to showcase their talent and to benchmark their employability skills against other apprentices. They have all done exceptionally well to get this far in the competition and I wish them all the very best in the national final when they will have an opportunity to secure a coveted place at the WorldSkills finals in Russia.”
