Fanuc recently partnered with World Skills for the inaugural Robot Systems Integration challenge, which featured young programmers from across the globe.

Taking place at World Skills 2019 in Kazan, Russia (22-27 August), the competition gave ‘aspiring professionals’ under the age of 25 the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and attracted representatives from France, Germany, China, and Russia.

Fanuc UK was the lead sponsor for the new robotics competition; and as part of the company’s partnership with World Skills, it will also be exhibiting at World Skills UK Live at the NEC in Birmingham (21-23 November), with a demonstration event for Robot Integration.

Andrew Armstrong, UK sales and marketing manager at Fanuc, said: “The on-going global partnership between Fanuc and World Skills is both a promotion and a celebration of young robot programmers.

“The profession has a promising future, as we see instances of automation increasing across the manufacturing sector.

“However, there is a concerning lack of skilled workers in many countries, and action is needed to help address the gap.

“By partnering with World Skills, Fanuc aims to give young people the opportunity to learn more about integrating robots, as well as programming them.”

The details of what the Robot Systems Integration Challenge in Kazan entailed were kept secret, with participants ‘in the dark’ until the day of the competition.

This helped to “simulate the versatility required of modern-day programmers, necessitating an ability to adapt to changing circumstances”.

Fanuc UK is holding an inaugural Open House event 29-31 October.

More information can be found at the Web site (one.fanuc.eu/fanucoh2019).