But first let’s tell you the story of how a Guernsey College welding student took on the rest of the United Kingdom and made it through to the SkillWeld 2008 finals held at the Welding Institute in Cambridge. www.twi.co.uk
In 2008 – the national competition to find Britain’s most talented trainee welder was officially launched by The Welding Institute (TWI)

The competition sets out to identify Britain’s top trainee welders who are proficient in all of the manual welding processes, including MMA and TIG and MIG/MAG welding of materials Stainless Steel, Aluminium and Carbon Steel in all positions.

The competition took off with a series of regional competitions in February 2008 and a shortlist of 10 eligible regional winners going forward to the national competition, which took place at TWI in Cambridge from 15 – 18th April 2008. The national winner and two runners up were then be independently assessed by both UK Skills and SkillWeld, with a view to being nominated to represent the UK in the WorldSkills Competition in Canada in 2009. www.worldskills2009.com

John Semenowicz now the programme manager for Engineering, explained at the time “Now’s the time to put Guernsey on the map as far as this competition is concerned. I am currently judging the student’s welding abilities and skill levels against those set by the competition and will shortly select 3 or 4 students for entry.”

Regional competitions for SkillWeld 2008 took place at: Cumbernauld College (Scotland); South Tyneside College (NE England); Tameside College (NW England); Doosan Babcock (Midlands); The Welding Institute, Cambridge, Lowestoft College (Eastern); Prestige Training (Wales); College of North West London (London) and Central Sussex College (South). content

Four of our Guernsey welding apprentices demonstrated the required skill level in order to enter the Competition. Pictured above from left to right: James Le Lievre of Marine and General Engineers, Shaun Sawbridge of channel Welders, Luke Brouard of Guernsey Sheet Metal and Fabrication and Welding Tutor John Semenowicz. (an additional student Ross Le Cheminant of Channel Welders has also qualified)

And then the SkillWeld 2008 Judges decided to come to Guernsey!

In order to reduce the cost of flying out the Guernsey competitors to the regional events in England. The competition organisers made an exception to the rules and flew out on to judge our competitors on Thursday 28th February.

Pictured left to right Judges Les Ness and Jon Pearsall

Result of the Regional Event
Out of a total of 130 competitors from throughout the UK our four Guernsey College students were ranked in the top 25!

One of the competitors James (Jim) Le Lievre made it through to the final 10 and he went to TWI in April 2008. Jim came seventh overall and was awarded a runner’s up certificate and various prizes from The Rt Hon Lord Trefgarne, Pictured below with Jim.

The winner was Jack Heaton, an apprentice welder at Doosan Babcocks in Selby and he will now represent the UK at the worldskills 2009 in Galgary, Canada. www.worldskills2009.com

SKILLWELD.2006  WINNER. Stuart Greer from Ulceby in Lincolnshire went to represent the UK at the 2007 WorldSkill Olympics held in Shizuoka, Japan.

Click on the youtube screen to see Stuart’s video taken in Shizuoka