Graphic design skillaroo hops over to WorldSkills London

20-year-old graphic designer, Nick Sharp from James Yeates Printing and Design, joins Team Australia to compete at the 41st WorldSkills International Competition in London, UK next year.

Representing the Graphic Design Technology category, Sharp, (pictured) who took out silver at this year’s WorldSkills Australia National Competition in Brisbane, will draw on everything he has learned in the past three and a half years as an apprentice at the Bairnsdale-based company.

“I think it will be a really good experience,” he told Print21. “I like to compete and will be training very hard in the lead up. I want to go in with as much confidence as I can.”

Sharp embarked on a career in graphic design after becoming exposed to the industry through his uncle. “He has been a graphic designer all his life and I thought that what he did was cool so I decided to delve into it as well,” he said.

“It’s a very big industry and things are always changing. The work itself has a real creative element to it.”

The Skillaroos will be representing 27 different skill categories such as Restaurant Service, Fashion Technology, Car Painting and Landscape Gardening.

The 41st WorldSkills International Competition will be a showcase of the global skills standards displayed by competitors from over 50 countries representing 45 skill areas. The competition is expected to draw crowds of over 150,000 people. The Skillaroos will not only face the pressures of excelling in their skill categories, but also defending Australia’s current 5th place ranking in the world- a great legacy from the preceding Australian Team at the 2009 40th WorldSkills International Competition in Calgary, Canada.