Following a three day competition hosted at the NEC, Birmingham, the winners for the IMI Skill Auto 2015 competition have been announced with a massive success for South West College Motor Vehicle students.
Connor McGaughey; from Mountfield an NVQ Level 3 Motor Vehicle student at South West College Omagh Campus and an employee of Kelly's Garage Mountfield took home a Gold Medal in the AutoTec competition. His classmate Seamus Goodfellow an employee of Ballina Car Auto Repair won bronze in the same category.
In front of 75,000 visitors, eighteen competitors have competed across three work streams (Auto Refinishing, Auto Body and Auto Tech) to be crowned the best automotive apprentice in their field. Their knowledge and skills have been tested to the limit as well as their time management, technical efficiency and not to mention their ability to cope under the pressure of working in front of thousands of NEC visitors.
Davie Massie MIMI, Skills Competition Manager, said:
"The 2015 IMI Skill Auto competition has been the best yet and my thanks go to everyone involved in helping deliver a showcase event. The real stars though were our finalists. They all demonstrated the exceptional talent we have within our sector and represented themselves and our industry very positively. Some now move on to train for the international squad who will compete in Abu Dhabi in 2017, but I wish them all very best for what I’m sure will be a bright future for each and every one of them."
Niall McElchar, South West College Lecturer, said; “The Motor Vehicle Department at South West College has been continuously developing a comprehensive curriculum offer that meets the needs of this rapidly developing High-Tec industry. We are delighted that our students can compete at the highest level in the UK and come home victorious”.
The Motor Vehicle Department at South West College would like to thank the following garages for their support and assistance with technical equipment to Connor and Seamus over the past year; McGinley Motors, Letterkenny, TC Autos, Kia, Omagh, Donnelly's VW, Enniskillen and James Dillon, Technical Topics.
Due to Seamus’s overall performance throughout the regional and national competition stages, he has now been selected to begin training with the aim of representing Team UK at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi in October 2017.