Apprentice plumbers display their expertise

Following a two-year gap due to the Covid pandemic, Scotland’s top plumbing apprentices have finally had the opportunity of demonstrating their expertise at the much-anticipated SkillsPLUMB competition held at Glasgow Clyde College last month.

Organised by SNIPEF, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s plumbing and heating industry’s trade association, the SkillPLUMB competition, which enables talented apprentices to showcase their skills and knowledge of best plumbing practice, is designed to promote standards and skills across the plumbing industry by developing competence into excellence.

Under close inspection by industry experts, competing apprentices tested their expertise on a series of challenging practical tests and were assessed on their individual knowledge, practical skills and employability attributes against set criteria in a competitively timed environment.

The action-packed day saw a total of 24 apprentices from colleges and training centres across Scotland competing for the top prizes in the lead and copper competitions.

Kayne Forsyth (middle front) who works for Camwater Ltd, won second in the copper competitions.

Kayne Forsyth of North East College Scotland who works for Camwater Ltd in Oldmeldrum took second prize in the Copper competitions.

The competition gave participants three hours to complete practical exercises in copper pipework or lead work before their work was to be critiqued assessed and marked by a panel of technical experts.

As the Scotland regional heat for SkillPLUMB, the highest-scoring competitors in the copper competition may go onto represent Scotland in the WorldSkillsUK 2022 National Finals which will take place this November in Middlesbrough.

Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training, attended the event as the SkillPLUMB competition’s guest of honour.

Stephanie Lowe, Acting Chief Executive Officer of SNIPEF, said: “This great event would not be possible without the support of our partners, funders and sponsors to whom we wish to say a huge thank you, not least to Associated Lead Mills for supplying the lead and Mueller Europe for supplying the copper.”