STONE FIRMS STAR. Joining the UK WorldSkills team in Japan is Nathan Smith (pictured right), a mason with Portland stone quarry company Stone Firms. Nathan won the gold medal at the SkillBuild competition in Birmingham and became the first stonemason ever to receive the Frank Eaton Trophy as the best performer among all the skills in the competition. So the UK WorldSkills team decided to invite him to join them in Japan just to see how WorldSkills works.

Last year, as a first year student at Weymouth College and working for memorial masons Lovells, Nathan gave an indication of his skills when he gained the bronze medal in the SkillBuild competition. He moved from Lovells to Stone Firms because there was a greater opportunity on Portland to experience a much wider range of stonemasonry. A year later his skills have clearly been honed.

Back in the Stone Firms workshop on Portland before heading off for Japan Nathan was modest about his SkillBuild achievement, but told NSS: "My Mum and Dad were there and they were like ecstatic."