Gary Collier won a prestigious silver medal at the WorldSkills Competition in Helsinki, Finland, last month (May).

Gary was among 11 competitors from across the world in the stonemasonry category and worked with hand and power tools to cut and shape natural stone in front of large audiences throughout the four-day contest.

Gary, from Oldham in Lancashire, is 21 years old and works at Lloyd & Smith Ltd, Oldham. He was trained by Kevin Calpin, programme leader for stonemasonry courses at York College. He received sponsorship from Hanson Building Products.

The 18-strong UK team, which gained a Gold and two Silvers and seven Medallions of Excellence, was placed 11th overall on average team score, for the first time exceeding the 500-point World Class benchmark standard. The UK score was higher than previous WorldSkills giants Japan, France, the USA and the host country Finland.

At the closing ceremony in Helsinki, Chris Humphries, chairman of UK Skills and director-general of City & Guilds, said: "We are extremely proud of Gary who has proven to be a world-class stonemason.

"WorldSkills is the largest skills competition in the world, with over 700 competitors from almost 40 member countries participating. All our young people were excellent ambassadors for their country and their outstanding achievements demonstrate the UK\'s ability to achieve world class standards in vocational skills."

Dr Graeme Hall, chief executive of UK Skills, an independent organisation largely funded by the Department for Education & Skills, said: "We want young people to be inspired by the example of this year\'s UK WorldSkills team and encourage them to participate in skills competitions, both national and international.

"The standards set at these events provide a benchmark against which industry can measure and compare its performance with that of our major overseas competitors, and so help to raise the standard of performance within the UK.""