Staff members motivate WorldSkills UK squad
Three Reaseheath staff members played key roles in a WorldSkills UK national training camp over the weekend.
Jo Maher (Assistant Principal), Greg Houghton (Programme Leader for Public Services) and Kate Humphrey (Programme Leader for Sport) delivered interactive psychology sessions to the WorldSkills UK squad at the camp in Loughborough.
Jo Maher leads activities with WorldSkills UK long squad
Level 3 Diploma in Floristry student Robyn Longden was one of 160 talented young people to benefit from the motivational training, aimed at preparing squad members for competition on a world stage.
She was long listed for the squad following a strong performance at the WorldSkills UK national finals in November and will be offered further training opportunities before final selection nearer the 2017 world finals, which will be held in Abu Dhabi.
WorldSkills UK competitor Robyn Longden
We are hoping that Robyn will follow in the footsteps of Matt Beesley, a former Level 3 Diploma in Horticulture student who, with fellow team member Jonathan Gill from Northern Ireland, won Team UK’s first ever medal in landscape gardening at the WorldSkills final in Sao Paulo, Brazil this summer.
Reaseheath has been a strong supporter of the WorldSkills programme for some years, particularly in garden landscaping and floristry. Held every two years, the WorldSkills finals put the spotlight on the skills of young professionals in vocational careers working to international standards.
Jo Maher has been supporting Team UK as their Performance Psychologist since WorldSkills Leipzig in 2013 and travelled with Team UK to Brazil last summer. The approach to the training and development of competitors is based upon the transfer of the psychological skills training of elite athletes to a WorldSkills competitor. This pioneering approach has helped to prepare and support squad members throughout their build-up and during the competition itself with WorldSkills Sao Paolo resulting in Team UK’s best ever medal haul.
Two weeks ago, Jo delivered a guest lecture on performance psychology at a WorldSkills celebration event, held at Glasgow City College.
