SummitSkills is celebrating the BSE sector's vocational training after Team UK won a gold medal in plumbing and heating, a bronze medal in refrigeration and air conditioning and a medallion of excellence in electrical installation at WorldSkills London 2011.
VIP visitors to the event included Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal and Prime Minister David Cameron, who described it as 'so inspiring'.
WorldSkills London 2011 brought together skilled young people from 51 countries or regions around the world at ExCel in London, to take part in competitions testing 45 skills from aircraft maintenance to welding. The UK achieved 5th place overall in the medals table, behind Korea, Japan, Switzerland and Brazil.
Shane Trevitt from Bailey Building Services, won the gold medal in the plumbing and heating competition. His score was the highest of all the UK's competitors across all the skills and the third highest amongst the 1,000 young people from all countries taking part in the whole WorldSkills event. Mr Trevitt, secured his place on the UK team after reaching the finals of SummitSkills' own nationwide SkillPLUMB competition in 2010.
Stuart Millar, WorldSkills 2011 winner of the bronze medal in refrigeration and air conditioning, also came to the attention of Team UK through another of SummitSkills' competitions, SkillFRIDGE, which he won in 2010. He is from Loughgall in Northern Ireland and is employed by A&N Shilliday and Co.
Chris Young of Rogers Restoration, champion at the nationwide 2009 SkillELECTRIC event won a medallion of excellence in the electrical installations competition at WorldSkills London 2011.
Keith Marshall OBE, chief executive of SummitSkills, said: 'What a brilliant result for the UK, its talented young people and for the building services engineering sector in particular. SummitSkills is a great supporter of WorldSkills and we are proud of the role that our own Skill M&E competitions play in identifying the best of the best in our sector who may then go on to compete internationally.
'Experience has shown that our own competitions often act as a springboard for the most talented young people in our sector, propelling them to greater heights and it is wonderful to see Shane, Stuart and Chris achieving such success. We'll soon be searching for our 2012 contestants and I would urge employers to consider the benefits of entering their own talented young apprentices.'
