SkillELECTRIC UK Finalists Announced

The eight competitors who will compete in the 2019 SkillELECTRIC UK final have been named, following a series of challenging regional heats earlier this year.

Level 3 Electrical Apprentice Scott Barr (Ballygowan) from SERC has been selected as a Construction and Infrastructure finalist with his Electrical Installation skills. Scott has already proven himself to be a fierce competitor, having previously won gold in both SPARKS UK Electrical Apprentice of the Year and the WorldSkills Regional SkillBuild competition. He has also earned the title of Overall Young Apprentice of the Year and was presented with the Haldane Fisher Cup which recognises the top apprentice across all construction trades involved in the WorldSkills Regional SkillBuild competition.

All will now go head-to-head in November at WorldSkills UK LIVE, the UK’s largest skills and careers event at the NEC Birmingham where over 70 WorldSkills UK competitions will be held, watched by around 70,000 visitors.

In the quest to be crowned SkillELECTRIC champion, contestants will have to install a complicated 2-day practical task set to a strict timescale and against a rigorous marking criteria.

The remaining finalists include:

• Alex Rendall, Bridgwater and Taunton College
• Ben Kidner, Rogers Restorations Ltd
• Blair Angus, SECTT
• Darren Kerr, SECTT
• Jonathon Sherratt, Oldham College
• Kevin Brown, Army – Royal Engineers
• Lewis Sim, Moray College Technology Centre

SkillELECTRIC is the only UK electrical competition aligned to the WorldSkills UK network. Those who score most highly will have a chance to compete at the next WorldSkills competition taking place in Shanghai in 2021. Earlier this year past-SkillELECTRIC finalist Thomas Lewis competed internationally in Kazan, Russia and received a Medallion of Excellence in recognition of his work reaching the international skills standard.

SkillELECTRIC is organised by National Electrotechnical Training (NET) and its sponsors include the Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (ECS), Edmundson Electrical, Scolmore, Dickies Workwear, Di-Log and CPN-Cudis. Visit www.skillelectric.org.uk for more information about the competition.