Southern Regional College’s reputation as the leading college in international skills competitions was further enhanced following the recent ion of six of its students for the UK skills squad. The squad will compete in the World Skills competition in Abu Dhabi in August 2017.
Entering international skills competitions enables the College to benchmark the employability skills of its students and apprentices with those from around the world. This ensures more young people are being equipped with the right skills to help our local businesses compete globally. WorldSkills is the pinnacle of skills excellence and development and the College is once again delighted to be leading the way at a global level and building on the tremendous success of its past apprentices and students.
SRC is delighted to have the largest number of participants from any college ed for the UK squad preparing for the Worldskills competition. This achievement has been built on the exceptional success that the College has had in recent times most notably through local man Gary Doyle, who won the Gold medal for Plumbing back in August 2015 at the Worldskills competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
This year Jordan Jeffers (Portadown), Armondus Tamulis (Portadown), Kieran Magee (Mayobridge), Jordan Mark (Rathfriland), Michael Skora (Newry) and Gavin Rice (Newry) have all been chosen for the UK Squad following success at UK and European skills competitions over the last two years.
Michael Skora, studied the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Engineering at SRC’s Newry Campus from 2014-2016 after leaving St. Coleman’s College. He was supported to enter the Mechanical Engineering CAD Competition by his lecturer Mr. Gary Mackin. Having just completed his 3 A-Level equivalent course, Michael is now progressing to Queen’s University Belfast to start a Degree in Engineering.
Michael says of SRC: “Studying Engineering at Level 3 has given me a broad knowledge of the skills required by an engineer and I have already set myself up with a vast degree of knowledge which I can take both into my degree and forward in this competition. I am excited about starting my degree and training for the team to represent the UK at Worldskills.”
Kieran Magee from Mayobridge joined SRC in 2013 from St. Mark’s High School. He studied Floor and Wall Tiling, progressing from Level 2 to Level 3, with the support of his lecturer, Mr. Paul Doran. Kieran now runs his own business, Magee Tiling. He says: “The whole competition side of things has been a great experience for me alongside my studies at SRC. Actually my main competitor has always been fellow SRC student Armondus – we have some craic that’s for sure”.
Mr Brian Doran, Chief Executive of Southern Regional College said: “We are delighted to have 6 of our students ed for the UK skills squad and their success is a testament to the quality instruction and guidance provided by their tutors across the campuses of the Southern Regional College. It is only right that we celebrate the success of these young men, who have demonstrated that they have the skills and attributes to compete with the best in the world. I hope the local community will join with us in wishing them every success in the forthcoming weeks as they undergo final preparations for the ion process and I have every confidence that they will be able to emulate the success of Gary Doyle in bringing back World skills gold medals from Adu Dhabi next summer.” .
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