A college-led skills competition for apprentices has been hailed a huge success by industry leaders, after four students won a sponsored place to a prestigious national engineering competition.
New College Lanarkshire hosted its annual Electrical Fire and Security Skills Challenge to coincide with Scottish Apprenticeship Week from March 5-9. Over 30 Electronic Fire and Security modern apprentices competed in the two-day challenge, travelling from as far as Aberdeen and Dumfries to attend the specialist facilities in the College’s Motherwell Campus.
They were challenged with taking on a variety of tasks in two stages – fire alarm installation and intruder alarm installation - which were assessed by SSAIB training manager Trevor Jenks on their level of skill in health and safety, installation, testing and recording of operational checks and handing over of the system.
The winners from each stage and overall winner from each day have now been offered a sponsored place at this year’s Engineers of Tomorrow competition that will take place during IFSEC International in June, where apprentices from all over the UK can prove their skills on an international platform and the chance to win £1,000.
In the fire installation challenge, Aaron Wilson from WRB in Dundee and Steven Flannigan from CSS in Glasgow were named the winners, while Steven also excelled in the intruder alarm installation challenge alongside Andrew Tham from Observitas in Airdrie. Overall champions on each day included Steven and Stuart McLuskie of Nexus in Glasgow, meaning the four will now go on to compete in London.
David Scott, curriculum quality leader of built environment at the college - and organiser of the competition - said: “In the third year of their apprenticeship, the competitors performed to an excellent standard, well beyond what is normally expected of someone at this stage of their course.
“This is testament to the high standard of training they are receiving onsite with their employers and at college. It was a privilege to have so many industry experts and partners in attendance to watch the competition.
“It created a real buzz around the competition – as, at one point, there were over 60 visitors from all over the sector and our apprentices continued to perform at an advanced level. I’d like to thank all our partners who took the time to attend the competition and support our apprentices and the College.
“The most important thing for me was that the students that absolutely loved it. There was a lot of nerves in the morning, but as the competition came to an end everyone said they had fantastic experience.
“I am delighted for Aaron, Steven, Andrew and Stuart, who will now go onto compete in Engineers of Tomorrow – one of the most prestigious competitions in industry. New College Lanarkshire has always been very successful at this event, so we are hoping to continue that success this year.”
Trevor Jenks added: “It was my pleasure to assess the competitors and I was very impressed with the standard of competition on show.
"It’s unfortunate that there could only be four of them that progressed to the Engineers of Tomorrow competition at IFSEC, but it’s testament to Aaron, Steven, Andrew and Stuart that they’re the successful ones and – if the rest of the competitors at IFSEC are at a similar level or better – it’ll make for a very interesting few days at the Excel in June.”