Building gold for students

A COLLEGE hit gold when four of its students competing in World Skills regional competitions and took home a silver and three gold medals, writes Karine Le-Blanc.

Jorgie Spicer, 18, Daniel Howard, 21, Radoslaw Zielonka, 26 and Joseph McNamara, 20, all construction students at the College of North West London, received their honours at The London region Skillbuild competition, run by Summit Skills year.

All four are now in the running to compete in the nationals where, if they are among the highest scorers nationwide, they will progress to the UK Skills national final, at Coleg Menai in Wales, from September 8 to 10.

Two of the gold medallists were already college champions after taking part in internal Industry Day competitions.

Impressively, painting and decorating gold medallist, Jorgie Spicer, completed his three tasks comfortably in the allotted time as others struggled to finish - even though he is just a Level 1 student.

The other trade champion was Radoslaw Zielonka from Poland, a carpentry student.

A third gold medal went to bricklaying student Daniel Howard - one of the top winners at Industry Day but not the overall trade champion.

The silver award in carpentry went to Joseph McNamara, whose tutor described him as 'unbelievably lightning fast.'

Tutor, John Norris, said: "Using our own internal college competition on Industry Day, we were able to select the best students and see their strengths and their potential. This prepared them for the regional competition.

"The students who won were really dedicated and never missed a lesson. They turned up early, didn't want to leave and were always keen to learn more. This is one of the main secrets of their success."

The students will not know if they are among the top scorers until all the regional competitions are complete at the end of June.