High-flying Middlesex Architectural Technology graduate picked for Britain’s ‘Skills Olympics’ squad

A Middlesex graduate is in contention for a place at this year’s WorldSkills International finals in Shanghai, in the Digital Construction skills competition

Gabija (Gabi) Gailiunaite graduated in Architectural Technology in 2024 and now works for BPTW Architects. She first took part in the WorldSkills UK nationals two years ago, when she ranked in the top 40 in Digital Construction. Last year she reached the national finals in Wales where she came fourth and was highly commended.

Gabi is now honing her skills through intensive training and will compete against two other squad members in a three-day trial to decide who will represent Britain at the landmark event, known as the ‘Skills Olympics’, in September.

The Digital Construction competition, which tests skills in the collaborative building design and management process BIM, involves using an architectural software package to recreate the architecture and specifications of a huge university-campus style building in digital 3D. Other tasks contestants face over four days include doing an energy analysis of the building design, then maximising its sustainability credentials; and putting architectural renders onto the skeleton – a subjective effort.

“I can’t emphasise enough how big these buildings are,” says Michael McGuire, WorldSkills UK’s Digital Construction expert and training manager and a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, about the challenges facing participants.

He praises Gabi for having “pushed herself above and beyond what she [was] doing on her programme" from when she was first involved in WorldSkills, describing her as “very self-driven - very determined and resilient in terms of bouncing back. Gabi is more interested in beating her own score than beating someone else”.

During her studies at MDX, Gabi worked as a Student Learning Assistant, and she also became an Associate Fellow of Advance HE (previously the Higher Education Academy). In her final year she did a two day a week work placement with BPTW, leading to her being taken on full-time after she graduated.

Dr Homeira Shayesteh, Senior Lecturer in Construction, Architecture and BIM at MDX says the innovative part-time work placement model is “very much a win-win situation… There’s value of [the students’] work to the company, and students learn a lot on the job that helps them improving their course performance”.

The Digital Construction discipline, introduced to WorldSkills International for the first time in 2018, is considered the second quickest-advancing area of the skills tested at the event, the fastest being software development and AI. The sustainability software that the students train on was locked down six months ago, so competitors don’t have to start all over again with the newest platform.

Michael McGuire says how proud he feels seeing students he has trained progress and represent the UK on the international stage. He likens WorldSkills to professional sport in the degree of preparation it requires – which extends to sessions with sports psychologists – but adds the competition is a “very happy world”.

“Within a few days you have hundreds of new friends,” he says. Between rival international teams, “there’s no conflict, no animosity, lots of back-slapping and congratulation - they are very happy for you”.

Gabi is MDX’s first UK squad member in Digital Construction, as 2019 WorldSkills UK silver medallists Viorel Mihailuc and Vidmantas Benaitis were over the age limit for the international competition.

Current members of the UK squad Peter Jenkins, an engineering apprentice with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and George Hedges, who works for Sony, are training at MDX for the Robot Systems Integration competition under training manager Karla Kosch, who joined the university as a lecturer in Robotics last October.

Find out more about MDX competitors in WorldSkills UK