It is always great to see the tiling stars of tomorrow emerge, and SkillBuild and WorldSkills are two arenas where the cream can really rise to the top. At these events high level trade skills can be recognised, rewarded, and celebrated. So many, many congratulations from Tile Addict to Odhran Connelly from Southern Regional College in Northern Ireland for his recent victory at the SkillBuild 2018 National Finals in Wall and Floor Tiling. As a national SkillBuild winner, Odhran is now eligible to compete at WorldSkills 2019 being held in the Russian city of Kazan. What an opportunity!
Odhran beat off stiff competition from silver medallist James Ackland (Cardiff and Vale College), bronze medallist Mariusz Kanjecki (City of Glasgow College), highly commended Callum Pearson (Leeds College of Building), and four other competitors.
The finals of the national construction competition for apprentices and trainees took place at the NEC, Birmingham from 15th to 17th November as part of the WorldSkills UK Live exhibition. Throughout the three-day, 18-hour competition, contestants were asked to tile a wall and floor, based on a 3D building design, using 150 by 150mm ceramic tiles. Competitors fixed the tiles with BAL Max Flex Fibre and BAL Rapid-Flex One, and grouted with BAL Micromax2 Snow, including BAL Micromax Sealant for all movement joints. Other materials were supplied by members of The Tile Association, including N&C and Schluter Systems, with Sigma contributing to the prize giveaways.
Dave Rowley, BAL Training Manager and lead judge for SkillBuild 2018 said: “Many congratulations to Odhran for winning a hard-fought final competition. The standard of fixing throughout the three days was exceptionally high, which made adjudicating very hard. Competitions like these help raise standards and give trainees and apprentices a focus and standard to work towards.”
More at: https://www.goconstruct.org/construction-today/skillbuild/
A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, November 2018
