Skilled Helen is on top of the world!

Tutor awarded prestigious WorldSkills Certificate of Merit.

College tutor Helen Jones has been awarded a prestigious Certificate of Merit for her contribution to the international vocational organisation WorldSkills.

Beauty therapy tutor Helen joined the Performance and Wellbeing Team at WorldSkills UK over six years ago. Described as a global hub for skills, the international organisation hosts skills championships every two years where the most talented vocational students compete to be the world best in their field.

Helen is a longstanding WorldSkills Performance and Wellbeing coach and was instrumental in bringing the regional WorldSkills UK heats to the College’s Northenden Campus in 2018. She also attended the WorldSkills Sao Paolo 2015 cycle and the Abu Dhabi cycle in 2017.

Her services to the organisation have now been recognised with one of only four Certificates of Merit awarded to UK members. Once a year the Chief Executive Officer invites WorldSkills members to nominate distinguished individuals for a Certificate of Merit, which are then considered by the Board and approved nominees presented at the General Assembly.

Helen was nominated for her work as Team Leader, her support of Team UK at international competition and for her significant contribution on the professional development of over 350 international competitors.

Her nomination stated: "Helen is the strongest advocate for the life-changing potential of vocational skills training and competitions and brings her unique insight and pragmatism to ensure the training and development programme provided for Squad and Team UK is high impact and high value."

She said: “I didn’t really know it was happening so I was quite shocked when the email came through!

Receiving the certificate is recognition of the work we do and how important it is to the world skills community.

“I’ve been part of World Skills since 2013 as a Performance and Wellbeing coach and I’ve attended World Skills event across the globe.

“Alongside being a tutor at the college, I usually attend Loughborough University on a quarterly basis to help with face to face events but due to COVID-19, that is now a fortnightly Zoom meeting where I help students with their online learning and make sure their wellbeing is good.”

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