The team, made up of 22 highly talented young people, competed in 21 categories in the gruelling four-day event.

WorldSkills is the biggest skills-based competition in the world, held every two years, in which 49 nations compete in skills such as engineering, landscape gardening, graphic design, hairdressing and beauty therapy.

The UK won the following medals:

Gold in cabinet making – won by Gary Tuddenham (22)
Silver in graphic design – won by Harry Smith (22)
Bronze in autobody repair – won by Simon Noble (21)
Bronze in car painting – won by Jonathan Lloyd (21)

We also moved up one place in the league table since WorldSkills 2005 – from 12th to 11th in the world overall, and fourth in Europe.

Amazing achievements

Three out of four of our medals and seven out of nine of our medallions of excellence were won by City & Guilds-qualified team members.

Gold medal-winning Gary, who studied for his City & Guilds Level 3 qualification in handcrafted cabinet making at Kendal College, achieved the third highest score in the entire event in which over 850 people competed.

Simon Noble, who holds City & Guilds NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in Vehicle Body and Paint Operations, used Andrew Blair – winner of a gold medal in autobody repair at WorldSkills 2005 – as an inspiration for his bronze medal-winning performance.

The medallions of excellence winners achieved amazing things too – our landscape gardeners received only four points less than the gold medallists in their category. The UK team received medallions in welding, bricklaying, joinery, floristry, hairdressing, beauty therapy, confectionery, landscape gardening and IT PC & Network.

Support for skills

The UK WorldSkills team is managed by UK Skills working in partnership with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the Scottish Executive, the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland, the Welsh Assembly Government and key partners from education, government and industry.

John Denham, Secretary of State said: ‘WorldSkills is about raising the status and the standards of vocational education. For our team to have achieved such great results proves we have skills in this country at world class levels. This team is helping to break down the snobbery around skills training - there is nothing second best about good skills-based careers.’

Inspiration for young people

On the return of the team to the UK, work will start to secure a new team to take part in WorldSkills 2009 in Calgary and WorldSkills 2011 in London – for which City & Guilds will be the premier sponsor.

John Denham says: ‘I hope that young people seeing what has been achieved in Japan will feel inspired to take up skills they can excel at professionally. I want many more to rise to the challenge themselves for the next competition in Canada in 2009 and again in 2011 when London will be hosting WorldSkills - and when we can show we can be the best!’

For more information on WorldSkills and other skills competitions, visit www.ukskills.org.uk