The Erne Campus was host to the first annual South West College (SWC) battle of the scientists, on Thursday 3rd March 2022. Science students from Enniskillen, Omagh and Dungannon campuses descended on the state-of-the-art labs at Erne to match wits and skills to be crowned the SWC Inter-Campus Science World Skills Day Champions for 2022.
World Skills competitions provide an opportunity for students to compete and demonstrate their talent using industry-based scenarios. The skill and enthusiasm of these prospective Laboratory Technicians was clear to see with 14 students taking part to demonstrate their abilities to work safely, effectively and accurately in the lab.
Awareness of health and safety, meticulous lab work, diligent data analysis, the ability to work in teams and individually are key traits for employment in the science industry and these traits were front and centre as the students undertook an experiment to determine the concentration of unknown solutions using spectrophotometry.
On the day, the winners were Harry Bradley and Joseph Owens from Omagh Campus, who demonstrated critical thinking, accurate lab work and time management to be declared the first-ever SWC Laboratory Technician World Skills Champions. Harry and Joseph received a £100 voucher and are now eligible to move on to the regional competition, the winner of which will proceed to the UK finals.
Other students awarded prizes were Karolina Tierney and Amy Swift (Enniskillen), who came second and Óisín Woods and Josh Cain (Dungannon) who placed third.
A special prize was awarded to Marty Moffatt and Dylan Swift (Enniskillen) for overall contribution and teamwork.