Posted: Tuesday 19 May 2009

Welding Students Prepare for Ultimate Skills Challenge

Three Welding apprentices are preparing to put their talents to the test after being selected to represent the college at this year's UK Skills Competition.

HNC Fabrication, Welding and Inspection student, David Bunton (20) from Cumnock, and NC Fabrication and Welding students, Mark Hastie (20) from Cumnock and Stewart Rowan (17) from Irvine, impressed the judges at a recent welding competition at Kilmarnock College. The talented trio will now battle it out against Welding students from Motherwell College and Cumbernauld College in the West of Scotland heat on 1 May.

The top three students from that heat will face a further challenge at the Scottish Heat held in Cumbernauld College before having the opportunity to compete at the UK Skills finals in Cambridge next year.

The winners from next year's UK Skills will go onto compete at the WorldSkills Competition in London in 2011. The WorldSkills Competition is the world's biggest skills competition celebrating excellence in over forty categories ranging from welding to cooking.

David, Mark and Stewart all attend Kilmarnock College on a day release basis while also honing their skills on the job. NC student Mark works for Auchinleck based J&D Services and 17 year old Stewart has an apprenticeship with Annandale designs based in Kilmarnock. HNC student David is employed with Adelphi which is based in Lugar.

Alan Middleton, Welding and Fabrication Lecturer at Kilmarnock College, said: "David, Mark and Stewart have all worked extremely hard to develop their welding skills and I'm very impressed with their attitude and commitment. The all have a very bright future ahead of them and we wish them the best of luck for the next heat."

The Welding and Fabrication courses at Kilmarnock College are available on a full-time and a day release basis and cover areas including cutting processes, fabrication forming and welding principles.

For further information on welding courses or any other courses available at Kilmarnock College please contact 01563 523501 or visit the courses section.

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For more information, contact:
Denise Clark, Halogen Communications, (T) 0131 202 0120 (F) 0131 225 3757 (E) denise@halogencom.com

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