Over two days in November 2023, the WorldSkills UK Floristry Finals took place at Trafford College, Altrincham, where eight up and coming florists showcased their professional skills.
WorldSkills UK is a four nations partnership between education, industry and UK governments, working to help the UK become a ‘skills economy’ boosting the prestige of technical and professional education by embedding world-class training standards to help drive investment, jobs and economic growth.
The floristry competition is aimed at enhancing the skills of the floristry workforce and the opportunities available to those who strive to be the best at their craft. The theme for last year’s finals was “the launch party for a new boutique style hotel”.
The competitors had to complete two tasks during day one; a wired design which would be worn by the partner of the hotel owner, and a large free-standing design (minimum size 1.5m tall) which would be displayed in the lobby area of the hotel. For the former, the competitors were allocated 1.5 hours while for the latter, 2.5 hours.
Day two saw the competitors create a hanging design to decorate the main entrance door of the hotel (2 hours) followed by two surprise tasks; a necklace to be worn by the owner of the hotel who has an eccentric taste (1.5 hours), and a hand tied design which was to be displayed on a 1m tall pedestal within the lobby of the hotel (1.5 hours).
The judging was done by Karen Armstrong and Kathryn Sherwood of the UK Floristry Judges Guild.
The medal ceremony took place at Bridgwater Hall in Manchester and Kirsty Nobel of The Floristry School Sheffield clinched the Gold Medal, while Edel Michael from CAFRE won Silver and Emma Rochfort from Warwickshire College Group got the Bronze Medal.
On this page is a little taster from the surprise necklace category. Aren’t they fabulous! And isn’t it great to know that the future of floristry is in such safe hands…
Our thanks go to the UK Floristry Judges Guild for the images.
