Winners of World Skills UK science challenge announced

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Winners of World Skills UK science challenge announced

Teams from Newcastle College and Pembrokeshire College won gold and silver medals repectively at the WorldSkills 2012 environmental science competition in London.



The team from Newcastle College were Damian English, Molly Secret and Emily Athey. The team from Pembrokeshire College, all apprentices employed by energy corporation Valero, were Scott Beavis, Thomas Roche and Craig Hooper.

Five teams from the UK and one from the Netherlands had to design a sustainable energy solution for an imaginary island community; build a renewable energy generator and present a report to judges justifying their solution and winning over members of the local community.

Steve Davies from the National Skills Academy for Power said: “We would like to congratulate the winners of the environmental science competition. As we face an increasing challenge to attract young people into the power sector, events like WorldSkills give us the opportunity to demonstrate just how exciting and dynamic a future in our industry can be.

We were delighted to support the competition and wish all of the participants great success in the future."

Tom Wilson of unionlearn said: “Congratulations to unionlearn and the Valero teams. This was clearly a very successful competition and perhaps the first of many that unions will be suggesting to UK Skills to celebrate the high quality of their members’ work.”

Jacqui Henderson from the Tec Trust Fund said: “We’re delighted that the environmental science competition was such a success. The fact that the competition was held at WorldSkills London 2011 meant that every competitor, and not least the winners from Newcastle College and the runners up from Valero, were able to showcase their skills on a global stage. I hope that this will be first of many national and international Environmental Science competitions which will enable young people to develop the skills key to the UK economy.”

Sue Ferns, head of research at Prospect, who co-ordinated the competition, added: “Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the UK and world economy. It is essential to attract skilled and motivated young scientists to work in this vital area. Prospect is proud to have played a part in raising awareness of the opportunities that exist for them to make a difference. We wish them all success in the future.”