Students shine in Carpentry and Construction competitions

Students learning Carpentry and those on the Construction & The Built Environment courses were set challenges to complete in a time limit and were then judged by visiting employers.

The carpenters, working in pairs, were asked to create from a drawing, a three-level stand to display pot plants or other ornaments. Every student managed to complete the task within the timeframe and judge Leroy Joseph, Managing Director at the Gateway Community Trust, said the finished products were all fantastic.

He said: “The standard has been unbelievable from these students. I have been doing this for 35 years and I am so impressed with them.”

The winners were Johnny Wybrow and Alex Little.

In the Construction & The Built Environment competition, students were asked to plan a building project, such as a leisure centre. They needed to consider points such as the size of the land, costings, materials, marketing campaigns and the legacy it could leave behind for the community.

In teams they then had to create a presentation about their idea and pitch it to judges Ruairi Coffey and John O’Connor, from construction company the Danny Sullivan Group which supplies skilled professional labour to the industry.

In presenting the prizes, Ruairi said: “The teams all did a really good job. We did ask them some tough questions, but there were some excellent presentations and great ideas. We hope the students will take on our feedback and that it will help with their development.”

The winners were Isabelle Clark and Daniel Pile.

Industry support on the day came from Danny Sullivan Group, Travis Perkins, CPI Euromix, Gateway Community Trust, OX Tools Global and Rollins Group.