Construction student wins gold at national competition

Former Barnsley College apprentice, Adam Batty, is celebrating after winning gold in bricklaying at the 2019 SkillBuild National Final.

Adam, 19, from Darfield, battled it out with other talented apprentices to be crowned as one of the country’s most talented trainees.

SkillBuild is the largest multi-trade competition in the UK for construction trainees and apprentices and forms a part of WorldSkills UK.

The competition took place at the NEC in Birmingham where competitors were given a challenging design to build over the three-day competition. Adam used his bricklaying knowledge to interpret the drawings to set out and build his design using different styles and intricate techniques of brickwork. He won the competition on the accuracy, neatness and overall finish of his final build.

The final was made up of the eight highest scoring brickwork trainees from the regional qualifier competitions that took place throughout the UK earlier in the year.

Adam said: “I found the competition very challenging yet rewarding. It tested my skill and speed to the limit. It’s been three of the best days ever. I’ve made friends and memories for life doing the competition. It was just an added bonus that I won out of the eight best in the country.”

Michael Lindsay, Adam’s Tutor at Barnsley College, added: “The hard work and effort Adam put into practice prior to and throughout the competition is a credit to him. WorldSkills UK attracts a large number of visitors from the construction industry so it was a great way for Adam to showcase his superb brickwork skills and techniques to construct three brickwork models to a very high standard. Well done Adam!”

For more information about construction courses at Barnsley College call: 01226 216 123, email: [email protected], visit the website at: www.barnsley.ac.uk/construction or come along to our Open Evening on Thursday 30 January 4.00pm to 7.00pm.