UK SKillbuild Success for South West College Students

UK Skillbuild Success for South West College Students

Five apprentices along with their tutors from South West College travelled to Bangor University in Wales last week to represent Northern Ireland in the UK Skillbuild National Finals:

• Phillip Glasgow – Omagh Campus student (Carpentry)
• Mark Woods – Omagh Campus student (Floor and Wall Tiling)
• Michael Savage – Omagh Campus student (Cabinet Making)
• Connor Nevan – Dungannon Campus student (Bricklaying)
• David Beattie - Omagh Campus student (Joinery) 

SkillBuild is part of the prestigious WorldSkills UK competition framework, which is a series of around 70 quality-assured skills competitions which take place in a diverse range of sectors from built environment to cultural and creative arts.  At the event two of the College students were successful and took home UK title medals; Connor Nevan a Dungannon Campus Bricklaying student, tutored by Jim McAlinden, achieved a silver medal in his category, and Phillip Glasgow a Carpentry student from the Omagh Campus, tutored by Tony McGartland, took home a bronze medal in his skills category. 

Outstanding competitors from this year’s UK competition have been put forward for the selection process to represent the UK at the next international WorldSkills competition when it comes to ExCeL in London on 5-8 October 2011 and Connor Nevan has been selected to take on this mantle.

At the competition Paul Sykes, Head of Recruitment and Careers at CITB-ConstructionSkills said:

“At a time when the news pages are full of stories about graduates being hugely in debt and struggling to find work, SkillBuild is a great opportunity to celebrate and showcase the excellent talent and skill of young people who have chosen to take the vocational route into construction."

“This year’s final promises to be the toughest yet and the competitors have been training hard to make sure they take the top spot. All the trainees who have taken part in the competition have been outstanding and show the budding expertise that the industry will benefit from. They are the lifeblood of the industry and the sector’s future success lies with them.”

South West College would like to congratulate all the students that took part in the UK event and wish Connor well in his future Worldskills endeavours.