Good luck at WorldSkills UK, Barney!
12 Nov 2026
We'd like to give big congratulations to Barney Terry, who will compete at the WorldSkills UK Final as a CNC Machinist next week.
Barney, a third-year apprentice in our Manufacturing Facilities Group, will take on seven other finalists for the top spot on the CNC machining leaderboard.
He began his journey to WorldSkills UK earlier this year with an internal selection process, including an interview and practical test to prove his skills ahead of the competition qualifiers.
The test involved ‘clocking in’ a fixture, which means aligning it with the CNC machine’s axes of travel, and using an engineering drawing to decide how he would machine a specific piece.
A few months later, Barney was also quizzed on his machining knowledge. Like, what is the symbol for tool stepover? Or what would you do for a piece with X tolerances?
Barney with his Game Boy, made for the WorldSkills UK CNC Machining qualifiers.
After all this, WorldSkills UK confirmed that he had been picked to compete in the qualifiers, held in June
For this first round of the competition, Barney was asked to complete a machining test, which, interestingly, was in the shape of a Game Boy.
He was given a drawing and a STEP file, and had only one attempt to complete his piece, which was then shipped off to WorldSkills UK for assessment.
Judges compared it against the engineering drawing, evaluating position tolerances, height tolerances, surface finish, and more.
Thanks to his machining expertise, Barney passed these tests with flying colours and qualified for the CNC machining final at University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Swansea.
Last week, Barney travelled to Wales for a familiarisation week, giving him the chance to get used to the machine he will be working with before the competition begins on 16 of November.
When asked about the experience so far, Barney shared:
“Since applying to WorldSkills UK, I have improved my mechanical mindset and developed new skills in programming and machining at a competitive level. I’ve enjoyed every moment of training for the final, and I’m so grateful to be picked this year.
“It has been an amazing opportunity to learn and gain experience on multiple machines over months of training, with hours of programming and machining across the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Now that I have finished my familiarisation week in Swansea, I am very excited to show what I’ve worked on and prove my skills to myself and others who have kindly given their time to help me throughout this year.
“I have to give a massive thank you to everyone who has supported me during my journey, including the skills centre, my workshop managers, colleagues, trainers and the facilities I have worked in. I hope I can achieve more in the future and help others with their machining skills.”
Good luck, Barney! We know you’ll do a great job.
This story was originally shared on our LinkedIn account.
