A City College Southampton apprentice from the Isle of Wight has won first place in bench joinery at the regional heats of the 2016 SkillBuild competition this week.
Charles Pearce, 16, from Totland Bay is a City College Southampton Level 2 bench joinery apprentice. On Thursday he demonstrated he had the skills he needed to lay the foundations of his future.
A total of 9 students from across multiple construction disciplines were entered into the competition by City College and came away with brilliant results at the regional heats.
On the day, apprentices were provided with a brief to complete within a timescale and had to apply the skills they had learnt in the workplace as part of their NVQ qualifications.
SkillBuild is the largest multi-trade competition in the country, covering 10 craft occupations including bricklaying, carpentry and painting and decorating. The competition works on a point based system and the students will find out if they qualified for the finals, held at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham in November.
Nigel Smalley, learning manager in construction, said:
“It’s a fantastic achievement for the students and credit goes to our teachers in brickwork, carpentry and painting & decorating who have not just delivered the core skills to our students, but gone that extra mile to make this possible.”
Charles said:
“My tutors have been excellent, they are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. This year of my apprenticeship at City College has been instrumental in providing me with the key skills I needed, which undoubtedly helped me to achieve first place in the SkillBuild regional competition.”
To find out more about apprenticeships visit www.southampton-city.ac.uk.
