Jason Whitehead gains a place in the UK Squad for World Skills 2014

Bricklayer Jason Whitehead has successfully earned a place in the UK Squad and is now in training for a potential opportunity to compete in São Paulo, Brazil in the World Skills competition 2015.

Jason has secured his place in the squad after a couple of years of competing at national level in the Skillbuild competition. He has been training tirelessly over the last few months to be shortlisted for World Skills and has had to prove his worth against other apprentices who are also considered the best bricklayers in the country.

The last stage of the shortlisting took place in Northern Ireland and below is a picture of Jason's brickwork model that won him his place in the squad.

  

WorldSkills is the largest international skills competition in the world. It is held every two years, and it sees around 1000 18-25 year olds, from all over the world compete for medals in more than 40 different trades. WorldSkills São Paulo 2015 takes place from 11-16 August, 2015.

 

If you would like more details about the World Skills competition and the UK squad selection, please visit the official website.
 

A new bench and £50 donation for Barnsley Hospice

The Brickwork tutors have recently donated a new bench to Barnsley Hospice.

 

 

The bench has been set in situ by the tutors, who also roofed the wooden frame to allow the residents to enjoy the fresh air in all weathers.

 

 

As well as the bench we have also recently donated £50 to the hospice, which was raised by the plumbing students through the sale of pens. This is a regular donation, with the Plumbers raising similar amounts every academic year.

 

Here is the Thank You letter sent by the Hospice showing their appreciation for the donation.

 

 

The bench and the donation are the departments way of saying thanks to the hospice for all the hard work they do and we hope they enjoy their newest addition to the garden.

 

Barnsley College Construction at Skillbuild 2014

The Construction department would like to say well done to all our students who took part in the Yorkshire and Humber Regional heat of the Skillbuild competition on Tuesday, the 24th of June 2014 at Hull College.

We had some really great results with either a 1st, 2nd or 3rd in all four trades that were entered (Painting & Decorating, Brickwork, Plastering, and Tiling).

Congratulations to Trent Johnson (1st in Junior Brickwork), Alex Whittington, Joe Crossley, Alex Davies (2nd in Tiling), Craig Brook (2nd in Painting & Decorating), Alistair Wood, and Ben Bottomley (3rd in Plastering). You all did great!

Here are a few photographs from the event:



Alex (2nd in Tiling)

Ben Bottomley (3rd in Plastering)

Alistair in P&D

The P&D team

Craig (2nd in Painting & Decorating)

Craig at work

Brickwork team

Alex during the competition

Joe with completed work

Trent working on his model

Trent's completed work



Painting & Decorating Students Volunteer at Local Charity

Painting and Decorating Level 2 students Sam Porter and Daniel Adlington have been working hard this week by volunteering to decorate Dorothy House, which is a new centre run by the Autism Plus charity.

The centre will be opening in Barnsley in July and will be offering respite and community services for adults with Autism, learning disabilities and mental health problems.

Here are the lads with Trevor Haughey (The Manager of Dorothy House) and Debbie Allsworth (Regional Director of Autism Plus).

Trevor is impressed with Sam and Dan's hard work and attitude and praised their efforts to P&D tutor Shaun Whitehead when he visited to check their progress.

Well done to the lads for volunteering their services to such a worthy cause!

Bricklayer Reece gains 2nd place in the Guild of Bricklayers National Competition

Three Barnsley College Brickwork students have recently taken part in the Yorkshire heat of the Guild of Bricklayers National competition. The event took place at Calderdale College in Halifax on the 16th of May and apprentices Reece Tuffnell & Trent Johnson along with full-time level 1 student Mitchell Purseglove-Stevens competed in the different level categories.

All three of the students did really well, but Reece Tuffnell's model was of such quality that it earned him 2nd place in the Senior competition.

He was awarded a trophy by the Guild of Bricklayers in a ceremony that took place after the event. Here is a photograph of Reece with the rest of the senior competitors and a few pictures of him with his trophy after he returned to Barnsley College.

 

Well done to Reece, Trent and Mitchell!
Keep up the great work and we look forward to seeing similar success in the future!

Plasterers create a Iron Man model

The plastering students at Barugh Green have been involved in an enrichment activity by creating a large model of Marvel Comics character Iron Man. The project has been a group effort with the model being constructed using bonding, hessian and plaster.

 

Ideal Boilers visit to Plumbing apprentices

On the 21st of May 2014 the Level 2 & 3 Plumbing apprentices were visited by Nigel Hague from Ideal boilers, who delivered a training session showing them existing and new technologies.

The training gave our students the opportunity to gain trade knowledge and expertise from one of the leading boiler companies in the area.

Nigel was impressed by the conduct and eagerness of the lads to learn and later sent this message to Plumbing tutor Ian Wileman.

We are really proud that our students have made such a good impression and we thank Nigel for visiting us and delivering such a valuable training session.