10 of the 12-person squad from Semta's engineering team UK won medals – the highest in the competition's history. It comes at the climax of years of regional heats, national finals, team selection, and gruelling hours of intense training to get them to world class standard.
Aircraft engineer, Shayne Hadland, from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire won a silver medal and was awarded Best in Nation for the highest score of anyone representing the UK in all disciplines at the event, with the exception of Beauty Therapist Rianne Chester who won the Albert Vidal award for highest score of all 1200 competitors.
Patrick Devanney and Dominic Trees and Chris Renwick, who work for CarnaudMetalbox, were all awarded Medallions of Excellence for their efforts in the manufacturing Team Challenge having built a robotic lift that could lift a substantial weight.
Other engineers winning Medallions of Excellence included Robyn Clarke and Andy Smith in the Mechatronics category, Alex Elton received one in the CNC Turning category, Mike Watson in CNC Milling and, after breaking his wrist just three weeks before the start of the competition, Reece Taylor, who works for Dyer Engineering, won a medallion in the Welding category.
A full list of the winners can be found here.
Ann Watson, ceo of Semta, the employer led organisation tasked with skilling engineering and advanced manufacturing, which runs the regional and national engineering heats in the run-up to the WorldSkills Finals, said the team had "surpassed our wildest hopes and most optimistic expectations."
Speaking to the British team, she continued: "Four years of dedication, intensive training and triumph in our regional and national heats, have placed you at the very pinnacle of your generation. Your efforts and achievement will act as a beacon for generations to come."
Semta and sister company EAL, are planning a special Parliamentary reception to honour the engineering team's achievement.
The next, bi-annual WorldSkills Finals is due to take place in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
