PEMBROKESHIRE College learners secured 11 medals in the recent Skills Competition Wales Finals.

Designed to put the best learners from across Wales up against each other in high pressure competitions covering over 50 industry sectors, Skills Competition Wales aims to enable young people to meet their full potential whilst raising their skill levels to meet employer needs.

Unphased by the virtual nature of this year’s competitions, Pembrokeshire College learners competed in a wide range of competitions including popular music, welding, inclusive skills, digital video production, web design, graphic design, hairdressing and beauty therapy.

In an online awards ceremony, gold medals went to: Zoe Price for graphic design; Bramwell Simpson for web design; and Deriece Raimann for welding. Silver medals went to: Kyle Robertson for inclusive fitness; Ross Jones for welding; and cromatics for popular music (Mollie Evans, Izzy Nixon, Ffion Rees, Zac Worthington and Emilie Zatac). Meanwhile Declan Morrissey secured bronze for inclusive media.

Learners will now be entering the World Skills regional competitions to see if they can qualify for the UK finals. These are held in November each year where learners will compete against the best in their chosen field across the UK.

Success in the UK Finals could see them go on to become part of the UK squad for the international World Skills Finals. With a long history of success in skills competitions, Pembrokeshire College is hopeful that some of those listed above will join a growing numbers of college learners to make it through to Squad UK, which saw two former learners compete in the world finals in Russia in 2019 and two learners currently hoping to compete in Shanghai in 2022.

“Pembrokeshire College learners have once again done the College, the county and themselves proud," said Pembrokeshire College principal, Dr Barry Walters. "There is a huge amount of talent amongst our young people and we are delighted to be able to help them to hone their skills to be the best in their chosen field. Securing medals at a national level is a huge achievement and my congratulations go to the winners and also to the staff for the hard work they put into enabling their learners to compete at this level.

“Over recent years we have seen growing numbers of Pembrokeshire College learners competing locally, nationally and even internationally. These young people are our future workforce so to see them excel across so many industry sectors gives me great hope for the future of our economy.”

Funded by the Welsh Government, the competitions are run by a dedicated network of colleges, work-based learning providers and employer-led organisations.