The very best of luck to the trainee tile fixers from across the UK who will be going for gold at this year’s Skills Show from 19th to 21st November.
The Skills Show is the UK’s leading skills and careers event for young people and takes place at the NEC in Birmingham. The wall and floor tiling competition is one of 60 trade finals being held.
Regional heats have taken place at colleges across the UK this year under the watchful eye of Dave Rowley from BAL, chairman of the Tile Association’s supply chain training committee.
Finalists now move on to the national event at The Skills Show, where they will aim to become UK champion. Those who excel may be selected to train in Squad UK to represent their country at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.
Congratulations to these young tilers, who have been invited to take part in the wall and floor tiling competition at The Skills Show:
Sovandeth Chin ? Leeds College of Building
Daniel Griffin ? St Helens College
Aaron Hilton ? Leeds College of Building
Aaron Horrobin ? Cardiff and Vale College
Lee Jones ? Cardiff and Vale College
Kieran Magee ? Southern Regional College
Jack Radford ? New College, Nottingham
Armondas Tamulis ? Southern Regional College
Christopher Weston ? Cardiff and Vale College
Patrick Wong ? South and City College Birmingham
Malcolm Worley ? St Helens College
A Skills Show spokesman said: “The UK’s most talented apprentices and learners are going for gold in the finals of the WorldSkills UK Skills Competitions.To be named as a finalist is a great achievement. Over 4,000 people registered to take part and those competing at this year’s Skills Show have won their places following a fiercely competitive round of over 400 heats that have taken place across the country.
“The finalists will compete for Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in a range of industries, including wall and floor tiling and everything from engineering through to creative services.”
The Tile Association is the lead competition supplier for the wall and floor tiling competition and is providing the prizes for the gold, silver and bronze medal winners. As well as a cheque, medal winners will also receive a Bellotta Pro 55 Tile Cutter.
BAL is providing the adhesives for the competition, with tiles supplied by Johnson Tiles and trims by Schluter. Suretile, meanwhile, is supplying a Tiletracker system for each finalist, which they will be able to keep after the event.
There is lots more information on the Skills Show website