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Keith Chapman - Download Case Study

Hometown: Richmond, North Yorkshire
Trade: Landscape Gardening

Competition: WorldSkills 2007, Japan
Result: Medallion for Excellence

Qualifications:
* 6 GCSE’s
* City & Guilds National Diploma in Horticulture
* Licentiateship of City & Guilds (LCGI)

Employer: Self-employed

Keith's Story

At just 22 years of age Keith Chapman has already achieved a great deal. Before he’d turned 21 he’d been entering and winning skills competitions and in 2007 Keith was selected to join Team UK with his gardening partner Tim Lancaster. The boys headed to Japan to compete at WorldSkills 2007 and came back with Medallions of Excellence for their work in the Landscape Gardening event. Keith was also awarded the John Barnes Award in recognition of his positive attitude and spirit which kept the team going.

So how did Keith get into Landscape Gardening?

Well Keith decided early on that his career lay in gardening. “I went to college to learn about plants but ended up enjoying the landscaping lectures the most so that’s what I decided I wanted to do. I love landscaping and all the work that goes with it. It just suits me. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

How did Keith get into competing?

That was through his college and a fellow student, Tim Lancaster. Having mentioned competitions to him, Keith was quick to agree to form a Landscape Gardening team with Tim. They promptly won the gold award in the Northern Regional Finals and then won the Nationals. But it took another year before they were told they were going to be selected for Team UK.

What was training like?

As soon as Keith was selected for the team they set a training programme in place, so eager were they to get going!

“Before we got selected we were already in training for all the regional and national competitions and that meant working all week and then training at the weekends for 12 hours a day, so we were used to the hard work. It got more intense as Japan got closer because we wanted to make sure we were doing things perfectly. We even built a garden from scratch as a practice run!”

What was it like being part of Team UK?

Everyone would agree that Keith was a very important part of Team UK, keeping everyone’s spirits up. He even helped a fellow team mate out with some work during the second night of the competition but didn’t mind losing precious hours of sleep before the next day of competing - he was just happy to help. His attitude was recognised by the team and he was honoured with the John Barnes Award because of this.

So how did it feel to come home?

For Keith, coming home was a time of mixed emotions:

“It felt great and exciting to come home but also sad. I wanted to get home and tell everyone about my time in Japan and what we’d achieved but at the same time I knew that I wouldn’t have to train anymore and prepare myself for competitions and suddenly WorldSkills wasn’t the only thing in my life, which felt really odd. I do miss the teamwork, the involvement and actually the work!”

What is Keith doing now then?

Well things have certainly not slowed down too much for Keith! As he explains:
“I have now set up my own business. My WorldSkills experience has helped me so much; it gave me the confidence to do what I wanted to do. I am also helping UK Skills with the 2009 UK Team which I’m really excited about. To be able to share my experiences with other up and coming gardeners and to help them achieve great results at WorldSkills will be really rewarding. I might be able to help them reach gold – that would be truly amazing.”

What does Keith remember most from his experience?

For Keith the whole experience of WorldSkills will live with him forever but in particular, Keith says:

“When we finally finished the competition, Tim and I put down our tools and we were absolutely shattered. Then Harry Turner (Keith’s training manager) came up to us and said he was really proud of us and that he thought we done the very best we could and that just made it worth all the hard work we’d put in. It says a lot about how our team got on with each other and how close we all were. We were in it together and that was a great feeling.”

And what will Keith be telling 2009 team hopefuls?

That’s simple: “Do it! It’s certainly hard work but it’s so worth it. Taking part is an experience of a life time. If you get the chance to take part just grab it.”