From Lincoln College to EuroSkills Gdansk: Meet the UK's Elite Painting and Decorating Apprentice Dior Regan

The UK is set to make a triumphant return to compete at EuroSkills, Europe’s largest skills event, this Autumn, which is taking place in Poland for the first time.  

Team UK – which heads to the EuroSkills Finals in the Polish city of Gdańsk from the 5th – 9th of September – will comprise of 20 elite apprentices and students, including Lincoln College’s Painting and Decorating Apprentice, Dior Regan.  

Governments and industry will be watching with interest to benchmark how well Team UK performs compared to the country’s main European competitors.  At the event, 600 skilled young professionals, under the age of 25, from 32 member countries including Germany, Switzerland and France will compete.   

Over 100,000 spectators from across Poland and Europe are expected to attend this year’s finals after the event faced disruption in recent years due to the pandemic.   

Ben Blackledge, Interim Chief Executive, of WorldSkills UK, which selects and trains Team UK to the highest international standard said: “The EuroSkills Finals provides a valuable mechanism for benchmarking the quality of skills. Through its competition-based assessment of young people’s skills against European industry standards, we can compare UK standards against those in the rest of Europe and importantly bring that international best practice back to the UK through the programmes we run at WorldSkills UK.  

“This will be a life-enhancing opportunity for Dior Regan, and I wish them the best of luck. They and the rest of the Team are the embodiment not only of the characteristics that we should aspire for in a young workforce but of the UK Government’s ambitions for Global Britain too.   

Mark Locking, Principal and CEO at Lincoln College, said: “We are extremely proud of Dior's outstanding achievement as she represents Lincoln College at EuroSkills Gdańsk 2023. Her success is a testament to the quality of education and training that we provide for our apprentices, but more so the professionalism, hard work and tenacity of Dior herself.” 

Dior Regan, a second-year apprentice, said: “Being selected to represent Team UK at the EuroSkills competition is the best feeling. It's been hard work training, but the skills and techniques that I have learned at both Lincoln College and Lindum have given me the confidence to compete at this level. I am extremely grateful for the support and guidance that I have received.” 

To secure a place in Team UK, the apprentices and students have been through an exhaustive selection process, taking part in the prestigious WorldSkills UK National Competitions.  Following the European Finals, they will continue their training with WorldSkills UK with the aim of being selected for the WorldSkills Finals which take place in Lyon, France next year.   

To read more about Dior’s journey, please click here and for further reading, click here.

For more information about our Painting and Decorating courses, click here.