About 300 students and their trainers utilised TAFE New England’s Tamworth facilities on Tuesday to hone their skills in automotive, carpentry, cookery, and baking among many other trades.

State manager for TAFE NSW, Adam Lucas, said it was important to bring the training workshop to Tamworth to help boost the WorldSkills comp in the region.

“Why I brought it to Tamworth, was to grow New England as a region in WorldSkills, to get their numbers back, not on target, but to grow them,” he said.

“They’ve had a bit of a decline in recent years.”

The competition aims to build the skills of the students, but Mr Lucas said it would have benefits for trainers and employers.

“It’s a showcase of excellence so for the employer, so if their apprentice comes through WorldSkills, they’re a representative and its something they can promote through their business,” he said.

Tamworth TAFE cookery teacher Cameron Falzon said it was a good opportunity for apprentices to share their regionally-specific skills.

“It brings people from all different regions, so people like us in the country probably have better meat skills; whereas city people have a lot more opportunity with seafood,” Mr Falzon said.

“It brings out the differences and then we can train and gap-skill the different areas and regions.”

WorldSkills competitor and Tamworth cook Madelaine Jurd said it was great to see the skills brought to the table from Sydney students.

“Sydney is very elite,” she said.

“They have smaller portions but a lot of work goes into it. It’s very art inspired, very pretty and very well orchestrated.”