Blog from Mally Lawton Health and Social Care competitor
When my college tutor approached my class not long after I had started my Health Science course and told us about the upcoming Skills Competitions Wales (SCW) qualifiers; I had no idea how much my life would change from that point onwards.
Before competing, I had little to no confidence and was at a complete loss as to what I wanted to do with my life and career. I had not found my passion in life yet! Competing however has had an amazingly positive impact on my career in a number of ways. It motivated me to study and gain as much as possible from my course. It gave me valuable insight and experience into the life of a healthcare professional, and what a care job entails. Ultimately however, competing in Skills Competitions Wales has allowed me to realise that my true passion lies in the healthcare sector. It has motivated me to apply to university to study a professional healthcare degree.
I’ve enjoyed the whole process of competing in the Health and Social Care competition immensely. Some of my most notable highlights being:
The overall training and the process of putting the theory side of my course into actual practise;
Learning a range of other healthcare related things that are not taught on my course e.g. taking vital signs, calculating BMI, how to care for someone with a specific illness/ disorder etc.
One of my main highlights, however, is that from competing I have learnt that I am actually quite a big ‘people person’ and so have loved meeting so many talented and knowledgeable people on my journey.
I have also gained a range of other valuable things from competing in Skills Competitions Wales! Not only have all my skills been developed in a professional way that would not have happened had I not competed, but the whole experience motivated both me and my tutor to register for the WorldSkills UK competition. I went on to compete in the UK qualifiers and was then invited to compete in the national final at the NEC in Birmingham, where I achieved the Silver medal. From this, I gained a place on Squad UK and am now in the process of training to compete internationally in Health and Social Care. I can honestly say that I would not have achieved any of the things I have if I had not competed in Skills Competitions Wales and had the support of everyone at Inspiring Skills Wales.
My advice for anyone who is considering registering for this year’s Skills Competitions Wales would be to just go ahead and do it! Don’t think about it, do it! Whether you are an extremely confident person, know that you want to work in the healthcare sector or are like I was and are neither; you have got absolutely nothing to lose but everything and more to gain by registering and competing in Skills Competitions Wales!
Registrations for Skills Competitions Wales 2021 opens on the 23rd of November- 14th of December. Don’t miss out and register on the link below!
Registration link - https://inspiringskills.gov.wales/skills-competition-wales