Central Sussex College Sweeps the Board at SkillWeld

Welding students from Central Sussex College were celebrating a clean sweep at the southeast regional heats of national competition, ‘SkillWeld’, held at the Crawley campus, on Monday 6th February.

The competition, which is run by The Welding Institute to find Britain’s most talented trainee welder, saw fourteen Central Sussex College students compete against each other for first, second and third place, and a shot at taking part in the national final, which will be held in Cambridge in April. This year, despite other local Colleges entering the preliminary rounds, the fourteen students from Central Sussex College were the only qualifiers, due to the exceptionally high quality of their work.

On the day, the students put their welding skills to the test by completing four different tests. The work was then judged by experts from lead sponsors of the event, Air Products, before the winners announced. Local sponsorship was from SPA Welding Supplies.

Curriculum Team Leader for Welding and Fabrication at the College, Bob Chase, addressed the group after the judges had made their decision, saying: “Today’s competition has been extremely close, and the final decision had been made on points, as the standard of work had been consistently high across the board.” He also thanked the faculty staff, sponsors and judges, as well as the students for their participation.

All those who took part received certificates, and goody bags from Air Products, and certificates and trophies from SPA Welding Supplies. The overall winner was named as Ben Fletcher, who is 21, and from Weybridge in Surrey. Second place went to Dan Colburn, 20, from Brighton and third place to Dan Evans, 21, from Redhill.

With the south east standard so high, it is anticipated that at least one runner-up will join winner, Ben, at the national final being held in April 2012.

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