Andrew’s skills shine with a silver award at all-Wales final

A student from Crosshands has scooped a silver award in the Industrial Electronics category of a Skills Competition Wales national heat.

Andrew Davies, a Pathways to Apprenticeship electronics student at Coleg Sir Gâr’s Graig campus, won second prize in the all-Wales final of the competition where he competed with nearly 20 other students from across north and south Wales.

“We were given the components to set-up a circuit to drive a roulette wheel and electric dice,” said the 20 year-old.

“We assembled the board and soldered the parts and tested the final assembly which was then assessed by judges who were looking at how the circuit worked and the quality of its assembly.”

The competition, which was held at Gower College Swansea, is backed by the Welsh Government through the European Social Fund. Skills Competition Wales promotes the importance of developing a highly skilled workforce.

As a requirement of his course, Andrew is currently undertaking a five-week work placement with Llanelli company, French Electrical Services.

Arwyn Griffiths from the college’s engineering section stressed the importance of work-based ability, “These competitions are fairly intense and focus on aptitude for work-related skills,” he said.

“They’re notorious for their quality of competitor and judges expect high quality work to showcase the best skills levels in Wales.”

“Andrew used the skills he’s been learning on his vocational course which include analysing and recording waveforms of electrical signals using measurement tools such as oscilloscopes.”

Skills Competition Wales offers learners the chance to test, benchmark and raise their skills levels and provides valuable competition experience for those who enter and progress onto WorldSkills UK competitions. WorldSkills UK competitions are the feeder route for competitors to go forward and represent their country at the biennial International ‘WorldSkills’ competition – the world’s largest skills competition. The next World Skills event takes place in Leipzig in July 2013.

Jeff Cuthbert, Deputy Minister for Skills, said: “It is vital that our workforce has the very highest skills and we continue to strive for excellence across all sectors to ensure Wales can compete on the international stage.”

Pic: Coleg Sir Gâr Pathways to Apprenticeship student Andrew Davies from Crosshands, with his silver award for Industrial Electronics which he won at the Wales final of Skills Competition Wales.