Prime Minister congratulates UK's Skills Champions

Gordon Brown met with a group of talented young people who represented Britain at WorldSkills 2007, the largest and most prestigious skills competition in the world.

Read the transcript for the film below:

Gordon Brown:

Can I say first of all just what a pleasure it is to welcome you here, to congratulate the whole team on what was a major success for Britain. You should be very proud of what you've achieved for our country, we are very proud of you, and I'm so glad you've been able to come to this reception this evening. And, Gary, congratulations. Where's Gary? Where's Gary? Come forward, Gary. Congratulations. Congratulations on this. Well done. I think we all owe you thanks and gratitude for getting the gold medal. Well done. When they said they were bringing a new cabinet this evening, John and I got a bit worried. But this is a marvellous piece of design and, really, we're so proud of what you've achieved. I'm proud of everyone who has won medals and medallions, proud of the fact that our team did so well as a whole in the competition.

You took Tokyo by storm, and I hope you enjoyed being there. And I want to thank everybody else who's contributed to this whole endeavour, because there are many people here who have been in the back room making this thing happen, and I want to thank you for your participation. And David Lammy, our schools minister, is here, John Denham is here, and all of us, on behalf of the whole government, want to thank you. You're going to get catering in a few minutes from Westminster Kingsway College, the students who are training there. And we went to see them a few weeks ago, and they're doing a wonderful job. They don't think the kitchens here are very good, but they're pleased to be here, and they're being filmed, I think, for London television. And it's yet another example of some of the great talents of Britain and the development of new skills making a difference to an area and a service and an industry, in fact, in which we're going to be world class as well.

We as a country are a country full of talent, we can develop these talents in the future to the benefit not just of you but to the benefit of the whole country, and we can become a great skills nation of the future. So I'm very proud of what you've achieved, John's proud of what you've achieved, I think everybody here who has worked with you, very proud of what you've achieved, and let's go on to be the great success story of the World Skills Games of 2011. It's great to have you here this evening, but we're here because we're celebrating your great achievements. My congratulations and thank you for being with us this evening. Thank you very much.