Bright sparks compete to be UK’s best young electrician

The UK’s best electrical students and Apprentices from across the UK competed in qualifying heats, at Barking & Dagenham College recently.

SkillELECTRIC is the search for the UK’s best young electrician; BDC hosted one of the 13 national qualifying heats being held across the UK, between now and the end of June.

The top scoring competitors from across all UK heats combined will be announced in July and invited to the UK grand final in November.

Competitors completed a series of tasks under the close scrutiny of judges, at BDCs purpose-built electrotechnical training facilities.

Callista Littlechild-Jones, 20, who studies at Harrow College and Uxbridge College competed in SkillELECTRIC, saying: “I'll be honest, it was a very stressful day with tight deadlines. However, it was an amazing competition. Everyone who competed was friendly and deserved to be there. I think it was an amazing opportunity to take part in such a competition where the standard of work was so high. The judges were amazing, and they kept everyone calm and made it a light-hearted day. All in all, it was a fantastic day at Barking & Dagenham College.”

Jennie Phung, National Electrotechnical Training (organiser of SkillELECTRIC) commented: “We'd like to thank Barking & Dagenham College for being such a fantastic host for our second national qualifying heat. The college has been a long-time supporter of skills competition and the WorldSkills network and the benefits for competitors are clear - taking part in events such as this help to build skills, knowledge and confidence which they can take back into their classroom and workplace.”

It’s the only industry competition aligned to the WorldSkills UK network, which means competitors may have the chance to represent their country and compete internationally at the next WorldSkills event.

The event is sponsored by Electric Center, the NICEIC and Scolmore Group and is organised by industry charity, National Electrotechnical Training (NET).