This competition has been designed to focus on all the essential skills needed for a successful career within the Digital Skills industries. The competition provides an opportunity for young people who may be aspiring to work in the IT industry, or in any job where it’s important to have good Digital, IT skills and knowledge, to showcase their talent and demonstrate their journey towards work-readiness. Some examples of the job roles available might be:
The competition is largely practical and are open to people working up to Level 1 and are designed so that there is a clear line of sight to appropriate jobs, impacting on economic growth and personal success
Word-Processing
Formatting Content
Organising Content
Organising and Analysing Data
Formatting Data and Content
Managing Data and Workbooks
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.
The Foundation Skills competitions have been created to showcase the skills of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), additional learning needs (ALN), or who require additional support for learning (ASL), who are currently undertaking a course with an FE or training provider at Entry level or level 1.
This is an individual competition.
Registrations open on Monday 2 March 2026, 9am and will close Friday 27 March 2026, midnight.
Entry Stage will be released Monday 20 April with a final deadline of Wednesday 29 April 2026.
Qualifiers will take place Tuesday 23 June and Wednesday 24 June 2026 at North Warwickshire & South Leicestershire College – Nuneaton Campus.
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.
The National Finals are scheduled to take place in Wales during the week commencing 16 November 2026.
