THE Southern Regional College is celebrating after its success at the recent Skillbuild 2014 finals.
The competition, which saw 100 competitors from across Northern Ireland put their skills to the test in 11 different construction trade areas, encourages trainees to improve their own skills and provides an example of the high quality work being produced in training organisations and colleges across NI.
The two-day competition assesses the competitors’ skills using test pieces designed to challenge the ability of apprentices within tight time frames.
SRC students won an outstanding five gold, five silver and three bronze at the competition, held at the Greenbank building on the Newry campus. In addition, Gary Doyle from SRC was crowned Young Apprentice of the Year and the college also held on to the DEL Cup, awarded to the most successful skills team in the Skillbuild competition.
The contest, run by CITB-ConstructionSkills NI, is held annually each spring, with the top local construction apprentices competing to win coveted titles, ranging from brickwork to wall and floor tiling. The winners may then go on to represent Northern Ireland in the Skills Show UK and potentially at WorldSkills.
SRC excelled in six categories, including cabinet making, industrial heating, joinery, painting and decorating, plumbing pipework and wall and floor tiling, collecting gold, silver and bronze awards in this category thanks to tiling students, Armondas Tamulis, Shaun Thornton and Jonathan Burrows.
The cabinet making team who won silver and bronze were Nathan Wilson and Christopher Jeffery. The industrial heating competitors who achieved gold and bronze awards were John Herron and Deividas Neimontas. Joinery had the top two students from SRC, with Jordan Jeffers being awarded gold, while the silver medal went to Brendan Magee. The plumbing pipework competition saw Gary Doyle, last year’s silver medal winner in the UK Skills Show competition, come out on top, with Gavin Rice awarded the silver medal.
Commending the competitors on their hard work and dedication, Minister for Employment and Learning Stephen Farry said: “Skillbuild, as with all skills competitions, is about raising the status and standards of professional and technical education and training, and the benefits from having more skillful, highly motivated staff.
“We look forward to building upon past successes, and getting a good Northern Ireland representation on the UK Team for the next WorldSkills competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2015.”
Chairman of the Skillbuild advisory group, Raymond Whiteford, said: “We award all competitors taking part in Skillbuild NI 2014 finals. This competition provides the perfect platform to demonstrate the enormous talent we have in the industry, helping to showcase the professionalism of our brightest recruits and industry as a whole Over the past few years our construction apprentices have achieved great success on a local, regional and world stage.”