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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. 

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