Middlesex’s key role in Team UK medal haul at the ‘Skills Olympics’

Medals of Excellence for participants trained by Middlesex experts, and Gold medallist Ruth Douglas cut her teeth in Middlesex-run lab skills competition

Middlesex staff, alumni and recent graduates have been flying the flag for the UK in Shanghai at WorldSkills International. The 'Skills Olympics' held every two years concluded Sunday 27 September with a ceremony at the city's Mercedes Benz Arena.

Overall, the UK took two Golds, one Silver and three Bronzes. As Team UK training managers in three of the competitions, Middlesex lecturer Dr Karla Kosch and alumni Marcin Regulski and Calum Knott supported contestants who between them won four of the UK's 21 medals. 

The UK’s Gold medallist in Chemical Laboratory Technician, Ruth Douglas - an Apprentice Analytical Chemist at Almac Sciences, who studied previously at Southern Regional College and now at Ulster University - began her journey at the regional heats of the WorldSkills UK lab tech competition, organised by Middlesex’s competition delivery team. For WorldSkills Shanghai, Middlesex delivered parts of the Laboratory Technician training programme and Ruth's penultimate preparation took place on Hendon campus.

In Industry 4.0, Caolan McCartan from Newry and Patrick Sheerin from Portadown, who trained under Marcin Regulski and Didactic Services Ltd's Omid Teimoori, came seventh ahead of teams from Germany, Japan and Australia, and were awarded Medals for Excellence for exceeding the 700-point benchmark for a world-class performance.

In Mechatronics, Toyota apprentices Emily Bettridge and Liz Hopkinson who had Calum Knott as their training manager also won Medals for Excellence in a crowded field of teams from 30 countries.

Middlesex was doubly represented in the Robot Systems Integration competition.

Pratham Lohia, who graduated in 2025, competed alongside Daresbury Laboratory engineering apprentice Peter Jenkins, with Dr Kosch as their training manager. While they narrowly missed out on a Medal for Excellence, they were only 40 points behind the Chinese Gold medal winners.

Ruth Douglas’s triumph in Shanghai follows her winning Gold at the 2024 WorldSkills UK national finals in lab tech, run by Middlesex and hosted at the University of Manchester.

Her training manager Michael Hughes wrote on social media: “Now I’ve wiped the tears from my eyes, I can say just how incredibly proud I am of Ruth. I’ve seen first-hand the dedication and hard work she has put in.”

Middlesex Senior Lecturer in Biosciences Dr Dirk Wildeboer, previously a Team UK expert, who alongside Southern Regional College’s Specialist Lecturer in Science Deirdre Murray assisted with Ruth’s training, said: “We are very proud of Ruth’s amazing achievement and our contribution to her success.”

Calum Knott, who works at Didactic Services Ltd along with Omid Teimoori, said: “Having been WorldSkills UK Mechatronics training manager for ten years, and attended ten international competitions, it has been amazing to see the growth of the skill. 

“The competition getting more challenging, competitive, and technically relevant, forces us to keep adapting, learning, and improving ourselves.

“For me, personally, one of the highlights is the network of training managers, experts, and past competitors. I now have friends and colleagues from all over the globe.

“It requires endless hours of hard work, sleepless nights, sacrifices. But it truly is the best job in the world.”

Babak Jahabani, MD of Didactic Services Ltd, official partner in the UK and Ireland of learning equipment provider Festo Didactic which sponsors a series of WorldSkills competitions, said: “What WorldSkills does for competitors is amazing. Three of my engineers have been competitors and all were at Middlesex. The confidence they had, the knowledge – they were 7-8 years ahead of the game.” 

He advises other institutions to emulate Middlesex by setting WorldSkills-style challenges in their teaching. “Bring it into your institute, make it a college- or university-wide competition,” he said. “There are people hiding away whose talents you don’t know about.”

With Team UK ranked seventh out of 68 nations in average points scored, Shanghai was Britain and Northern Ireland's best result at a WorldSkills International final for almost a decade.

Middlesex will have five teams in the Robotics competition, one in Automation and a competitor in the lab tech event at the WorldSkills UK 2026 national finals in South Wales in November. The WorldSkills UK national finals in 2027 and 2028 will be held in London.

Read more about studying BEng Robotics and Mechatronics at Middlesex