Middlesbrough College partners with WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence

Middlesbrough College is one of the first colleges to be part of the @WorldSkillsUK Centre of Excellence, in partnership with @NCFE, to mainstream world-class standards in skills development in the UK.

Working together with WorldSkills UK, NCFE and our partners, we will help develop a world-leading technical education sector. 

Parisa Shirazi, head of skills development and international competition at WorldSkills UK, said:

“This is a milestone moment – a unique opportunity for Middlesbrough College to work with other colleges across the UK and join the dawn of a skills revolution.

“Working with the staff at Middlesbrough College we will champion a skills-led recovery, which is driven by international benchmarking and rightly values high-quality apprenticeships and technical education to enable all young people to develop the employability skills that will provide them with a rewarding future.”

Using NCFE’s expertise in curriculum development and drawing on WorldSkills UK’s unique insights into global skills systems through its membership of WorldSkills, the global hub for skills excellence, staff at Middlesbrough College will be coached and mentored to embed world-class practises and techniques in their teaching, learning and assessment practices. 

The work will be led by WorldSkills UK High-Performance Skills Coaches, who are all experienced WorldSkills UK Training Managers. They will capture learnings from international competitions and use these to coach and mentor educators at Middlesbrough College who will pass this knowledge on to their students, ensuring they perform to international high standards of excellence in their skills.

 In addition to its work with further education colleges throughout the UK, the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence will also play an important role in supporting the development of higher technical standards across qualifications and assessment development.

Zoe Lewis, principal and chief executive of Middlesbrough College, said:

“We’re proud to have a passionate and expert teaching staff at Middlesbrough College who are dedicated to helping students achieve their potential.

“We’ve been selected through a very rigorous process to be part of the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence programme, one of only 20 colleges in the UK.

“This partnership will build on their strengths – enhancing teaching and curriculum innovation even further to give students a world-class skill set and mindset that will give them the edge in the jobs market and benefit their employers.

“The goal is to ultimately give employers a more highly qualified and performing young workforce which will support higher business productivity.

“Technical skills aligned to employers’ needs are a key specialism of Middlesbrough College and this partnership will keep us at the forefront of the sector.”