It has been an award winning fortnight for Exeter College Apprenticeships. Following the double win for Apprenticeships at the Exeter Living awards, five Exeter College Apprentices have claimed wins in their individual industries for their excellent skills and hard work.

To begin the winning streak, multiple construction Apprentices entered SkillBuild. This competition gives Britain’s best construction trainees a chance to compete against one another and showcase their talents to be pronounced the best in their chosen craft occupation. James Cope, Apprentice at Gentlemen Builders claimed first place in the ‘new entrant’ category for his carpentry skills and Harry Colgrave, Apprentice at C.J. Chenery Bespoke Furniture and Joinery achieved a brilliant second place as a ‘new entrant’ cabinet maker in the South Devon heat. Both James and Harry came away with excellent points and a chance to compete in the SkillBuild final as a part of the Skills Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

The success did not stop here for the Construction faculty, as just a week later Jordan Picot, Plumbing Apprentice at Go Green Engineering achieved the winning position at the southern heat of the SkillPLUMB competition. SkillPLUMB is run annually by BPEC to promote skills across the plumbing industry and give recognition to competitors for their expertise. When the heats have finished, the highest scoring competitors have the opportunity to progress through to the competition to the WorldSkills UK final.

WorldSkills UK competitions bring together Apprentices from across the country to compete to be the best in their chosen skill. The competitions are designed to inspire and challenge the next generation to be ambitious in their pursuit for excellence, whilst equipping them with life-long world class skills. This is indeed the case for our next Exeter College star, James Parsons, a Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Apprentice working at Exminster Garage.

James scored the highest on his day across six tasks in the Skill Auto competition, run by the Institute of the Motor Industry, putting him in the running to become the WorldSkills UK National winner. The competition, similar to SkillBuild and SkillPLUMB, Skill Auto aims to find the top new talent within the automotive industry and has as a result named James up there with the best in Automotive Light Vehicle Technology.

Our final winning Apprentice is Tobias Cowan. Tobias is training as an Engineer at HepcoMotion and is the Exeter College student representative for Apprentices. He has been named the Radio Exe Pride of Devon Apprentice and Young Employee of the Year, for his enthusiasm and determination both at work and as an ambassador for Apprenticeships. We are sure that we will be hearing much more from Tobias and all of our brilliant award winning Apprentices in the years to come. We look forward to seeing their future successes and hearing about their further achievements within the Skills Competitions – we are sure to have some world class winners within the college in the next few months.