A college Digital Media production team achieved bronze at the UK national finals of the World Skills UK competitions which took place from 21st-23rd November at the NEC in Birmingham, making this the 22nd medal the college have achieved in the digital video production category alone.
The college put forward four students to compete as part of a team in the digital media production competition, being only one of five teams across the UK entered to compete in the finals. The team comprised of CWA students, Charley Mulliner, Sophie Mummery who are studying for a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media and Keira O’Brien and Joe Murphy, who had already achieved their Level 3.
The national World Skills competitions see the best of the best compete at the highest level in their chosen skills. Spectators had the opportunity to witness exceptional talents in a wide range of fields, including carpentry and hairdressing to floristry and digital media production.
As part of the three-day long competition, the team were given a brief on the day before competing began. Participants were not allowed to speak to their tutors or peers while they were competing. The students were asked to produce a 4 minute regional news piece reporting on the Worldskills 'LIVE' event using the correct codes and conventions. The CWA team competed against five other college and university teams to take the bronze medal. A team from North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College took silver, while City of Glasgow College won gold.
The CWA team were the highest performing college in the Eastern region for the 7th consecutive year, with a third of all finalists being CWA students. This will be the 22nd World Skills medal that CWA has won in the Digital media Production category alone over the years of competing.
Joe Murphy said: “We worked well as a team and created something we are proud of. To say we are one of the top 3 teams in the UK is a big deal.”
James Fox: “To create a WorldSkills UK local news report in 3 days is a challenge, but to also achieve Digital Media Production Bronze in the UK is amazing. To have reached the finals for 5 years consecutively is a massive achievement in itself and for the past 7 years we have always made the semis. This is testament to the dedication of CWA students. I hope all of them go onto greater challenges and feed their new skills back into their course and beyond.”
College students, Ryan Lynch and Zacci Harrison, supported by Health and Social Care lecturer Domminie Wright, also competed in the Health and Social Care category and CWA and Stainless Metalcraft Ltd apprentice, Harry Jackson, in the Welding competition.
Principal, David Pomfret, said:
“The WorldSkills LIVE nationwide competitions are a way to showcase some of the highly-skilled students that are coming out of our college and indeed, colleges up and down the country.
Engagement in skills competitions enables us to stretch and challenge our students, raise aspirations, help students to develop self-confidence and belief, inspire others, showcase the talents of the college, raise the profile of vocational education and skills and develop a very impressive CV which leads to fantastic career opportunities. Ofsted recognised the extent to which this raises aspirations and enhances employability skills.
We are immensely proud of all of our competitors, who have worked extremely hard to reach and compete in the finals, and we are excited to see what they will achieve in the future.”