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Michael Westlake - Download Case Study

Age: 20
Hometown: Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
Trade: Junior Design Engineer

Competition: WorldSkills 2007, Japan
Skill: Mechanical Engineering CADD Competition
Result: 13th out of 21

Qualifications:

* 11 GSCE’s
* B-Tec National Certificate in Engineering
* NVQ Level 2 in Engineering Principals
* NVQ Level 3 in Mechanical Engineering
* Level 3 in 3D CAD
* Level 3 in 2D CAD
* City & Guilds 2800 in Maintenance Engineering
* Currently studying for HNC in Mechatronics

Employer: Matcon, Moreton-in-Marsh

Michael's story

At only 20, Michael Westlake knows what he wants out of life. He’s already got the job of his dreams as a junior design engineer at a firm he loves and plans to be chief design engineer before he reaches 30. Last year he was one of the youngest to compete at WorldSkills 2007 in the Mechanical Engineering CADD competition.

How did it all begin?

For Michael the move into Mechanical Engineering came after he studied it as a module as part of a college course and having been bitten by the bug, he promptly signed himself up on evening classes. Michael says: “Mechanical Engineering is great, there’s loads of creativity involved, being able to design and manufacture your own components. I love it.” It was while he was studying that he entered his first competition and became the regional winner. He followed this with a win at the national finals and finally went on to win a place on Team UK for WorldSkills 2007.

“Just finding out I’d got a place on the team was amazing. I was speechless when they told me, it was surreal and I don’t think it really hit me until we actually landed in Japan!”

Was the training tough?

“You don’t realise how much you need to do to prepare for WorldSkills. Luckily my bosses were very supportive and gave me the time I needed to train, and I had a great training manager. I gave up my weekends and holidays and it took a lot of energy and commitment but it is so worth it, with each training session I felt better qualified and a better person for it.”

So how did Michael find Japan?

The first thing that Michael noticed was the sheer scale of WorldSkills. With over 800 competitors and 200,000 visitors, he says the whole event was quite daunting but he soon knuckled down to the job at hand, finishing 13th out of 21.

“Having the team to share it all with you was really good, everyone was very supportive of each other and they will be my friends for life – we’ve got a shared experience that very few others will ever get a chance to be part of.”

But what about returning home, has anything changed?

Having trained for so long it felt strange for Michael to have, as he says, “nothing to do”, although he has become a bit of a celebrity, being interviewed by his local papers, radio shows and even appearing on TV! Since competing Michael says: “I’ve definitely become more confident in what I do, I’m more articulate thanks to all the media interviews and the training I did and I really believe that it is helping me on an everyday basis at work.”

“One of the things I’ll remember most about my experience with WorldSkills is walking up to the door of 10 Downing Street and being let in! The Prime Minister wanted to thank us for our efforts at WorldSkills and invited the whole team to meet him at a special reception – which just proves how important this sort of competition is.”

And what advice would Michael give to anyone wanting to compete?

“Take part! Stick with it, there’s going to be times when you’ll think it’s too tough and there are sacrifices but that’s as it would be with any sort of team you joined. Most importantly the effort is well worth it.”

So what does Michael think about WorldSkills?

“WorldSkills promotes vocational excellence, which I obviously feel is really important. I want to help promote these competitions as much as I can, especially as WorldSkills heads to London. The UK needs to recognise that these skills are incredibly important and WorldSkills is helping to do just that. If I can be a part of it again I will be!”

A word from his employer: Peter Slee-Smith, Operations Director, Matcon

Helping Michael achieve success at WorldSkills was Matcon’s first introduction to WorldSkills. Michael had already been picked for Team UK when he joined the company.

Peter says: “It was Michael’s enthusiasm and passion for Mechanical Engineering that made us decide to take him on.” The company has been totally supportive of him along the way and as Peter is the first to admit; “I suppose in reality we lost nearly six months of his first year of employment due to training but this was the level of commitment we wanted to give him and the benefits far outweigh this."

So, what are those benefits?

Peter says “Seeing Michael compete has given a lot of inspiration to staff and internal motivation has certainly shot up. Staff have seen what Michael’s achieved and know that it is something that can only be good for our industry.”
“It’s had a positive effect on our recruitment and wider company image. Both potential recruits and clients can see that we are prepared to invest in and support our staff so they know we are a good company and that is obviously really important to us as a business.”

And would Peter do it again?

“Absolutely. The benefits to Michael himself have been obvious and we feel those benefits in the work place. If we find the right person we will certainly encourage them to get involved with WorldSkills.”