BESA Celebrates Worldskills Gold Medallist Jones

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09 October 2026 | Updated 08 October 2026

The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has hailed the “outstanding achievement” of Sam Jones who won the gold medal in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026¹.

Jones, who works for Runcorn-based Industrial Cooling Equipment and trained at the Practical Refrigeration Training Centre in Burnley, was the overall winner following an intensive four-day competition at Shanghai’s National Exhibition and Convention Centre.

Minje Kim of Korea won the silver medal and Xavier Belanger of Canada took bronze.

The refrigeration and air conditioning category of a competition often referred to as the ‘Skills Olympics’ was one of the most heavily contested with 27 competitors taking part. As well as the top three, 11 also received medals for excellence including young engineers from China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Germany.

BESA, which is an organising partner of the WorldSkills UK competition² that can lead to participation in the global finals and operates the industry’s primary F-Gas registration scheme REFCOM, described Sam’s success as an “absolutely incredible result” and a fantastic advertisement for the UK cooling industry.

WorldSkills involves more than 80 countries and is a partnership between the education sector, businesses, and governments. It was set up over 60 years ago to help young people develop through competitions-based training, assessment, and benchmarking to support economic growth and create employment opportunities.

Six refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump engineers have battled through to the final of this year’s RACHP WorldSkills UK competition³ from a record-breaking field of 18 qualifiers and could ultimately win a place on the UK team that will compete at the 2028 Skills Olympics in Japan with the chance to follow in the footsteps of Shanghai gold medallist Jones.

This year’s semi-finals took place during the InstallerSHOW at Birmingham’s NEC over three days and at the height of the UK’s hottest ever June temperatures. The heatwave gave an extra relevance to the skills showcase as the apprentices and young engineers undertook a series of practical tasks including fault finding/diagnosis, fabrication, and the service and maintenance of RACHP equipment along with everyday skills like time management and organisation.

The finalists will also be part of this year’s BESA Annual Conference at the Brewery, London on 22 October where there will be a dedicated WorldSkills UK theatre. They will also be honoured at the BESA Industry Awards the same evening.

The WorldSkills UK final will be live streamed with registration available here.

Jill Nicholls, Director of Competence and Compliance at BESA, said: “We are all enormously proud of Sam and his achievement. WorldSkills is a huge competition which is taken extremely seriously by employers and governments around the world. To have come out on top of such an impressive field over four days of intense competition is outstanding.”

Nicholls continued: “Giving young engineers a platform to showcase their skills through competition is a great way to demonstrate the exciting and rewarding career opportunities available in the refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump (RACHP) sector – and apprenticeships are the ideal route to access this industry without running up high levels of student debt.”

Nicholls added: “This year’s heatwaves drew attention to the vital role played by cooling technologies and the need to get more young people into work is a top priority for the UK government. Sam is a trailblazer and ambassador for the next generation of RACHP engineers who will be in ever increasing demand worldwide.”

1. WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 – see here.
2. WorldSkills UK competition – see here.
3. RACHP WorldSkills UK competition – see here.

Picture: An image of Jones celebrating his win, holding the Union Jack flag behind him.

Article written by Dave Mapps | Published 09 October 2026

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