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Industry and Community From a childhood dream to reality: William Nickl's WorldSkills journey
Published: 21 Sep 2026
From an early age, William Nickl always dreamed of representing Australia at WorldSkills after being inspired by the success of young pastry chefs from his family’s patisserie in the Southern Highlands.
Now, the patisserie apprentice will have the opportunity to showcase his skills on the global stage as he competes in the Patisserie and Confectionery category at the WorldSkills in Shanghai.
“I’ve actually had this goal in mind from when I was about 10 years old,” William said. “I watched other pastry cooks from Gumnut Patisserie represent New South Wales at the National WorldSkills event and come back with the gold medal.
“I always knew that the international world stage was out there.”
After finishing school, William began his training at the Canberra Institute of Technology under renowned pastry chef Dammika Hatharasinghe.
“To be honest, without Dammika it wouldn’t have been possible,” William said. “He has really helped me from the ground up.”
William’s talent and dedication to his craft, saw him win the Regional WorldSkills before claiming the National title last year.
Since then, he’s left no stone unturned in his pursuit for excellence as he spent countless hours developing products, testing flavour profiles, and practicing his showpiece work.
“The skills I’ve learned and the amount of professional growth I’ve had over the past 12 months has been unlike anything I could have imagined,” William said.
In the lead up to the competition, William and Dammika have regularly worked 12 hour days to establish and finesse his showpieces for the event.
“William has done exceptionally well,” Dammika said. “It’s really rewarding to see your students doing well or even better than you.
“William loves doing chocolate work, but his greatest passion is sugar work and I’m also very passionate about my sugar artistry. William has taken it up extremely well so it makes me really happy that my skills aren’t going to die with me - it’s going to be passed on and will go on for a long time.”
While William has been able to draw upon Dammika’s expertise, he’s also been able to rely upon the support of his parents and his older brother Josh - a previous National WorldSkills winner during his time at CIT.
“Late nights, early mornings - they're here by my side," William said.“I don't think I would be where I am today without their support. It's been a roller coaster ride, but there's four of us on the roller coaster - so I've been able to enjoy it with the people around me.”
As William prepares to compete in Shanghai, he’s determined to make himself and his family proud.
“I'm looking forward to putting my skills to the test on the global stage and representing my country, representing my state, representing Gumnut Patisserie and pastry chefs from all around Australia,” William said. “I've wanted this to happen for a long time, so I'm not willing to give it up without a fight. I know that whatever happens on the day, I couldn't have trained any harder.”
“I would love to walk away with a medal, but I’m also grateful for the skills because no one can take those away from me.”
The WorldSkills Competition will take place in Shanghai from 22-27 September with CIT students William Nickl and Cooper Thornley part of the 36-person Australian Skillaroos team.