Health and Social Care Competition

Overview

Health and Social Care Practitioners work with a wide range of people in a variety of settings who are facing ill health or medical conditions.

This WorldSkills UK competition showcases the values, behaviours and attitudes required to work in health and social care and what it means to provide quality care. Competitors will be expected to exercise judgement and take appropriate action to support individuals to maintain their independence, dignity and control through a variety of practical exercises.

How competing helped Nikita progress into a coaching role.

The skills you need to demonstrate

Health and Safety
Empathy
Person centred
Flexibility
Compassion, dignity and respect
Communication and interpersonal skills
Problem solving, innovation and creativity
Assessing needs, planning and evaluating client care
Co-production and working in partnership
Learning and reflection

Useful resources

Prepare for competition success

Our library of endorsed local skills competition briefs ‘benchmarking assessments’ helps prepare learners to build technical skills, productivity, and mindset competencies for national competition success, including employability progression pathways.

Paired with the benchmarking tracker, educators can record progress, identifying strengths and target areas for improvement. Together, they offer a reliable, standards-led framework, creating a sustainable model for skills development that supports educators to empower learners to be competition ready.

Access on the Learning Lab

Contact details

worldskills@actan.org.uk

Entry criteria

This is an individual competition
There is no limit to the number of competitors permitted to enter this competition per organisation
Competitors must be familiar with the core competencies (these can be found in the ‘Useful resources’ section below) and should be working towards a Level 3 qualification or have achieved a Level 3 qualification in the last 12 months

How it works

1. Register

Registrations open on Monday 2 March 2026, 9am and will close Friday 27 March 2026, midnight.

2. Entry stage

Entry Stage will be released on Monday 3 March with a final deadline of 17 April, 2025.

3. National Qualifiers

Qualifiers will take place between 5 May to 27 June, 2025 (Exact dates will vary by competition).

4. Training and Development

To help finalists prepare ahead of the UK Final, we will provide relevant technical training and share mindset development techniques, to support them to remain focused on achieving success.

Prepare students and apprentices by engaging with our benchmarking resources to master their skills and mindset masterclasses to build confidence and resilience on the WorldSkills UK Learning Lab.

5. National Finals

The National Finals are scheduled to take place in Wales during the week commencing 16 November 2026.

6. Squad UK

Competitors who are age eligible and have achieved the benchmark score will be invited to opt into Squad UK for the WorldSkills 2028 cycle, subject to the skill progressing to the international competition cycle.