Newtown College Student Alice Yeoman reaches Worldskills UK National Final

Newtown College student Alice Yeoman secured a place in this year’s prestigious national finals of the WorldSkills UK competitions held in Birmingham.

The nineteen year old from Borth was the only Welsh finalist to get through to compete against the UK’s top junior Culinary Arts specialists from across the UK, in front of over 70,000 visitors at Worldskills UK LIVE. The event, which took place at the NEC, is one of the largest skills apprenticeships and careers event.

Alice put in a lot of time outside of college work and her job at The Wynnstay Hotel Machynlleth to plan and practise for the event.

Alice described the event saying: ‘It’s been such an amazing experience. Sadly I didn’t come away with a medal this time but I have come away with more confidence in myself and in my skills than I’ve ever had before and along the way I’ve made some fantastic memories.’

Alice was up against 150 applying for a place and made it into the top 10.

Alice went on to say:

‘I’m so grateful for the amazing support I had from my college lecturer Shaun Bailey at Newtown College and from colleague Gareth Johns back at work, their inspiration and encouragement has been wonderful’.

Catering Lecturer Shaun Bailey said:

‘It’s been a fabulous opportunity for Alice and I feel so proud of her achievements and for all the work she has put in.

When asked what advice she would give to others thinking of going down the same route, Alice said: ‘I can highly recommend Newtown College catering department to any prospective young person that has a passion for catering and culinary arts and any current students that are there and thinking of competition work. Be brave just do it! I would also like to say a massive congratulations to Chloe Lloyd-Hughes who won gold it was so well-deserved’.

WorldSkills UK competitions are run in over 60 skill areas and are proven to help people to go further and faster in their training and chosen careers.

Dr Neil Bentley, Chief Executive, Worldskills UK said:

‘Congratulations to all those that took part. The competition was fierce and the standards were very high. Our competitions equip apprentices and students with the lifelong, world class skills that will drive up training standards to the highest level to help boost UK productivity and competitiveness’.

The winners of Worldskills UK will be invited to join the training programme for the WorldSkills Shanghai 2021, where they could be selected to represent the UK in on the world stage.