In an exclusive interview with FE News at WorldSkills London 2011 yesterday, Knott said that while the current economic downturn and the rise of university fees has led many people to look for vocational training instead of university courses, "in many cases when they think about vocational training they think straight away about colleges, without really thinking that there are hundreds of training providers out there doing a great job".

Knott believes that WorldSkills offers a great opportunity for training providers to get out of their offices and talk to people and respond to their demands as well as meet organisations from other countries.

"We need to be out there really, to see how we can improve our provision, the impact we're having on people's lives and also in the economy not only in the UK but globally," he said.

Apostolos Kostoulas