Sandra Catell recently returned home from Leipzig, Germany, one very proud mum. She went out with her son and returned with a World Champion. Andrew Craig, aged 21, and a member of the Glasgow congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, represented the United Kingdom in the Worldskills Competition, the equivalent of the Olympic Games for apprentices and skilled operators from around the world. The Worldskills Competition covers some 42 different skills including, hairdressing, floristry, gardening, dressmaking, car maintenance, robotics, manufacturing, joinery, welding, tiling and bricklaying. After a full week of gruelling competition, Andrew was awarded a Medal of Excellence, placing him number 4 in the world in Computer Aided Design (CAD).
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Andrew, a young single adult from the Dumbarton congregation, Glasgow, won the place to represent the United Kingdom in the world championship competition last year. He started off his journey at his local secondary school, one of the few secondary schools in Scotland to have the particular CAD software that took him all the way to the World Championships. His skills were further developed at College which supported him as he trained for team selection. Once he was selected for Team UK, he entered into some rigorous training with the team, during which he represented the UK in The Netherlands, where he challenged and beat the current European Champion. He then travelled to China where he won again. Following China he went to Canada, where, you guessed it, he won once more. In Leipzig he faced his toughest competition yet, where the pressure was so intense that the top four positions were within a few marks of each other.
Andrew is very grateful of the support received from his family, his school and college, and the Worldskills team who supported him through the run up and throughout the competition. Andrew is now involved in the training of one of his colleagues to help him be the next skills representative for the European Championships and then on to be the Worldskills representative in two years’ time.