Registration 28th Feb-1st April

WorldSkills UK competitions are gearing up for registration to open! .You can sign up from the 28th Feb until 1st April when the registration process closes.

World Skills UK is open to any age competitor but you must have under 5 years industry experience

What are WorldSkills UK Competitions?

Skills competitions are designed by industry specific experts, and assess an individual’s knowledge, practical skills and employability attributes against set criteria in a competitive timed environment

The benefits of getting involved

Competition activity develops employability and technical skills to high levels of excellence and enhances capacity in attributes valued by employers such as teamwork, problem solving, time management, judgment and working under pressure.

How to get involved

Register your interest at  www.worldskillsuk.org/skills/national-competitions/

Stages of the competition

• Passive stage – the first stage of the competition is a photographic entry. This stage tests the competitor to assure you are ready to progress. You will create a design to a schedule and provide photographs of the design from the angles required. The entry must be submitted by 11th April at midnight. The schedule is given to the competitor when they register so the sooner you register the more time you will have to design and make your entry.

You must gain a 60% pass mark or higher to be invited to a heat. Those who do not get past this stage will all receive valuable feedback to help improve and its a fantastic opportunity to gain competition experience. You will be notified on 20th April if you have made it through and you will receive your qualifier/heats schedules. You will then be invited to some online training.

• National qualifiers – These are the heats, which will take place in locations all over the UK. If you make it to the heats you choose which location suits you best. In the heats the top 8 highest scorers from all the locations will progress to the final. Within the individual heats the top 3 scorers for that that location will be announced on the day. You will create 3 designs for this stage, 1 you bring with you and 2 are made on the day. Overall The heats will run from 16th May-13th June but a date will be given to you of when you will compete.
• Announcement of the finalists will take place after all the heats have finished on 6/7th July. After the announcements, if you are a finalist, virtual training options will continue and you will be invited to a training day as well to prepare for the final.
• Live finals – The location of this event is still to be confirmed but all 8 finalists will compete at this event. The overall winner is announced at a ceremony (TBC) along with those who score highly enough to receive medals. For the final usually 5 pieces are made over 2 days. This will take place in November

The WorldSkills UK Floristry Technical Handbook is available here to view or download and will explain in detail each stage of the competition.

BFA Help and Guidance

In addition why not visit our Floristry Skills page where you will find videos on techniques, how to prepare your workstation and toolbox for the competition as well as The UK Floristry Judges Guild videos on how to read a schedule and the marking facets.

Why compete?

The WorldSkills UK competition-based training programmes are designed by industry experts and enhances the practical skills and knowledge taught on training courses by assessing an individual’s employability attributes against set criteria in a competitive timed environment.  The programme has a real impact on those taking part, with 90% of previous entrants saying their career progression improved after taking part and 86% stated their personal and employability skills had improved.          

Those who excel in the National Qualifiers are invited to take part in the National Finals, which will take place in November, with the winners crowned the UK’s best in their chosen skill at a national celebration event.  There is also the opportunity for the finalists to represent the UK at WorldSkills, known as the ‘skills Olympics’, which takes place every two years in cities around the world. WorldSkills UK is currently training a squad of apprentices and students to take part in WorldSkills Shanghai 2022.