TWO Monklands men are among the record number of New College Lanarkshire students selected for the training squad which will form the team representing Britain at the international skills Olympics in Shanghai next year.
Having achieved gold in the first ever laboratory technician competition, Airdrie’s Lewis Dymock, 22, has made Squad UK.
He will be joined by Coatbridge student Connor Patterson, also 22, who excelled in the inaugural building information modelling competition.
The pair are among 150 of the top performing students and apprentices from across the UK announced for the squad, with a further four members from New College Lanarkshire.
The superb six were selected after performing exceptionally at the WorldSkills LIVE national finals in Birmingham NEC last November, when the college was named number one in Britain after 26 students competed across 12 different categories to bring home 17 accolades – four gold, four silver, six bronze and three highly commended awards.
The group will now join the elite of the UK’s students and apprentices to undertake an intensive 18-month training process, fitted around their study and employment commitments, to bring them up to world class standard before the final team for China is picked.
New College Lanarkshire principal and CEO, Professor Christopher Moore, said: “The opportunity to participate in this prestigious initiative requires significant commitment and diligence on the part of our six students; I am proud and delighted that they have accepted this challenge.
“By combining their talents and determination with the expertise and support of our exceptional members of staff, I have every confidence that they will perform fully and well when the time comes in Shanghai.”
Education secretary Gavin Williamson offered his congratulations to the competitors, saying: “I am excited to see another talented group of young people preparing to showcase their skills on the global stage”.
WorldSkills UK chief executive Neil Bentley-Gockmann added: ““I am very excited we are on the road to Shanghai.
“After the brilliant national finals we have gone through a more stringent process in looking at the finalists, encouraging people and assessing people to come into the squad and I feel we’ve got a really good, strong squad to go into the first stage of our international training programme.”
