It’s a gold medal for Team GB in the Visual
Merchandising competition at Worldskills London 2011.
Essex based Seetec, one of the UK’s largest training and
employment specialists continues to reinforce their commitment to
developing skills in the workplace by being a presenting sponsor of
WorldSkills London 2011 – the largest international skills
competition in the world.
Seetec sponsored the Visual Merchandising category,
The gold medal for which was presented to Team GB's
Kirsty Hoadley, a 20 year old from Slough, Berkshire.
Kirsty has been planning for the event for over a year and to
win the Gold Medal at such a high level made all the hard work
worthwhile.
Winner, Kirsty
Hoadley with one of her award winning window displays. Photo
courtesy of Worldskills London 2011
The art of Visual Merchandising was once better known as “window
dressing”, but with the changing landscape of retailing, the art of
developing more than just a pretty window means developing more
creative and aspirational schemes for shoppers.
Visual Merchandising ensures that products are displayed in such
a way as to convert window shoppers into paying customers and to
encourage shoppers to move around the store to buy not just
one item but by using in-store displays, to inspire
them to make multiple purchases.
With increased competition on our high streets and customers
having to watch every penny they spend, the skills of Visual
Merchandisers has never been more critical to ensuring that
retailers keep their customers inspired and their tills
ringing.
Talking at the Worldskills event, Kirsty said;
“I just love what I do and to
think that I found out about it by accident is crazy!
I was queuing to enrol at East
Berkshire College Windsor Campus College for a French course but I
was in the wrong queue.
I started talking to a woman
named Sue Leadbeater, little did I know this woman would change my
life forever through Visual merchandising .When she told me
all about the course I was just hooked and said au revoir to
French!”
Kirsty continued, “Taking
part in Worldskills has been an experience and a half. I have meet
some fantastic people and made some really strong contacts and
friends for life. The other competitors have been truly
inspirational.
Being involved with Worldskills
has been an amazing opportunity as this has now enabled me to
continue my studies in Visual Merchandising at the London College
of Fashion.”
Worldskills London 2011 brought together almost 1,000 young
people from more than 50 Member countries and regions that competed
in 46 skill areas including Visual Merchandising, Carpentry,
Cabinet Making, Baking, Mobile Robotics, Landscape Gardening,
Mechatronics, Cooking, and Automotive Technology.
WorldSkills London 2011 has been the biggest event ever to be
held at ExCeL London, attracting 200,000 young people in four days
and has seen the largest ever number of people travel on London’s
Docklands Light Railway in a single day.