World News

Industry news and insights from Europe and around the World

UK News

Latest news and developments in the United Kingdom

Products

Keep up-to-date with the latest new products and technology

Features

General articles, applications and industry analysis

Luke Haile joins Team UK for WorldSkills Lyon

UK: Luke Haile, winner of the WorldSkills UK Gold medal in 2022, is to represent the UK in refrigeration and air conditioning at WorldSkills in Lyon in September.

The former apprentice at Eastleigh College, now an engineer with Lighfoot Defence, will join the 30 other young people from different professions in Team UK.

Popularly known as the Skills Olympics, WorldSkills Lyon 2024 will host over 1500 young people from 65 countries, who will compete in 62 different skill disciplines.

WorldSkills UK, a four nations partnership between education, industry and UK governments, is responsible for selecting, mentoring and training Team UK. Luke’s training is overseen by Mark Forsyth, a WorldSkills UK training manager and owner of Coriolis International.    

On being selected for Team UK, Luke said: “I was really nervous going into the adjudication room, even though I was the only competitor left in the process, nothing was guaranteed. This is big for me, I have always done well in student awards, but I felt that just proved that I was a good student, hopefully this will prove that I am a good worker too.”

Haile was previously National Student of the Year at the Cooling Industry Awards in 2020 and Trainee of the Year in the ACR News Awards in 2021. 

Latest News

20th June 2026

Year-long trial proves electric TRU reliability

UK: Following a year-long trial of Sunswap’s Endurance solar and battery-powered transport refrigeration unit by the TIP Group, the trailer and truck hire company has recorded a 100% uptime.
19th June 2026

Daikin Applied builds new $30m US training centre

USA: Daikin Applied has broken ground on a new $30m training facility in Plymouth, Minnesota.
19th June 2026

Lennox to acquire HVAC supplier Heat Controller

USA: Lennox has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Heat Controller, the Michigan-based owner of the Comfort-Aire and Century HVAC brands.
19th June 2026

Solstice enables A-Gas to reclaim HFO/HFC blends

EUROPE: Solstice has signed an agreement enabling the lifecycle refrigerant management company A-Gas to recover and reclaim its R404A/R507 replacement blends.
18th June 2026

Nordic Climate buys K4S

UK: Following its acquisition of long-established UK contractor Lightfoot International, the Swedish Nordic Climate Group has now announced the purchase of south-west-based K4 Services.
18th June 2026

The heat is on for WorldSkills competitors

UK: This year’s RACHP WorldSkills UK competition for apprentices will see 18 competitors battling it out at next week’s InstallerShow at the NEC, Birmingham.