Pm congratulates uk skills champions
TEAM UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown held a Downing Street reception to honour 22 talented young people who represented the UK 
The UK team competed against 51 nations in skills including hairdressing and beauty therapy, achieving 11th place at the competition, held in Japan in November. In total the UK team achieved a gold, a silver and two bronze medals plus nine medallions of excellence.
The Prime Minister, who was joined by Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham, and Minister for Skills David Lammy, met with all 22 team members, alongside apprentices from Westminster Kingsway College, who provided the catering for the event.
The Prime Minister said: "I was delighted to meet the participants from WorldSkills 2007 in No10. Ensuring the UK has a skilled workforce is fundamentally important to our future economic growth and recognising and developing talent is a vital part of that. What these young people have achieved with their commitment and determination to do well is outstanding, and it has placed them as superb role models. I pass on my heartfelt congratulations to the whole team for all of their efforts and wish them every success for the future."
WorldSkills is an international skills competition held every two years, where 51 member countries meet and compete in 40 different vocational skills, including beauty therapy. This intense, four day event took place on 15th-18th November 2007 in Shizuoka, Japan and was visited by more than 200,000 spectators. The next competition, WorldSkills 2009 will be held in Canada and WorldSkills 2011 will be held in London.
The UK WorldSkills team is managed by UK Skills working in partnership with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the Scottish Government, the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland, the Welsh Assembly Government and key partners from education, government and industry.
