News

Skills Academy invites carers to enter prestigious National Caring Competition

11 January 2010

The National Skills Academy for Social Care has put out a call to all social care employers and training bodies to nominate potential competitors for the first in a series of national caring competitions

The Skills Academy, in partnership with WorldSkills UK, is working closely with employers to identify potential competitors, and will run a series of regional heats in 2010 culminating in the first ever WorldSkills UK Caring Final this summer.

Skills Academy Chief Executive Liz McSheehy said: “This is the first time that caring has been included as category in the prestigious WorldSkills competition and we are calling on social care employers and colleges across the country to nominate people, and to let them know about the competition. We are also involving organisations in running or hosting competitions in their local area.”

Competitors will aim to win a medal at the UK final, for demonstrating excellence in care. Those winners who will be under 23 in 2011, and who fully meet the eligibility criteria, could be considered for potential inclusion in a shortlist for the team that goes on to represent the UK at the next international WorldSkills competition in London, 5-8 October 2011.

“We are devising a world class entry format for social care,” Liz McSheehy explained, “this is a really exciting opportunity to put social care centre stage – not just in the UK, but potentially internationally too. The WorldSkills caring competitions will set the standard for future social care students to aim for, and will raise the visibility of social care and inspire young people to make social care their career choice.”

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Finnis, who is studying for a BTEC National Diploma in health and social care, was a silver medallist in the pilot WorldSkills Caring Competition held last year. Her college in Devon entered her for the competition, and she consistently demonstrated excellent care over the course of three-day competition: “To be involved in the first WorldSkills UK Caring Competition was an amazing moment for me just on its own, but to have come away winning a medal was the icing on the cake,” Rachel told the Skills Academy on her award win.

The adult social care sector is facing serious shortages in trained and qualified workers against a backdrop of a rapidly ageing population; employers are struggling to recruit and retain staff to a sector where jobs are regarded as low status and there is no clear cut career structure.

Simon Bartley, Chief Executive of UK Skills, which oversees the framework of WorldSkills UK Competitions said: “Now more than ever, skilled industries are crucial to the future success of our economy. Entering skills competitions really does have a tremendous effect on competitors and their employers alike”

The WorldSkills UK Caring competitions will provide a means of showcasing the skills involved in social care work and help raise the status visibility of social care, to help attract workers into the sector.

Editors Notes

• For more information about how to enter or to nominate someone for the first series of regional World Skills UK competitions in 2010 please visit www.worldskillsuk.org or contact Emily Bari, World Skills UK Caring Competition Co-ordinator, at emily.bari@nsasocialcare.co.uk
• The National Skills Academy for Social Care is the first welfare-related Skills Academy in the network of Skills Academies that are developed by employers as world-class centres of excellence delivering the skills required by each sector of the economy.
• It will direct learning support and training practice to the 1.5 million adult social care workers and 35,000 employers, particularly targeting small and medium-sized employers with limited training and development budgets.
• 1.5 million people currently work in adult social care, including home care workers, care home staff and social workers. Demographic changes, including an ageing population, will require a significant increase in the social care workforce, which is predicted to rise to 2.5 million by 2020.
• The Skills Academy is led by a Board made up of a coalition of employer representatives from across the statutory, private and not-for-profit sectors in the adult social care sector.
• Adult social care supports those with a physical or learning disability, people with mental health problems, and older people.