Weymouth College stonemasonry student Robert Broomsgrove, 20, from Highbridge, Somerset, added to the Team GB medal tally at EuroSkills in Spa, Belgium, on Sunday (7 October) when he gained a bronze.

Robert said afterwards: “It’s great to have won a Bronze Medal. This is such a confidence boost and I hope it will help my career and show other young people that, with determination and practice, they too can have great careers.”

For Squad UK, competing at EuroSkills forms part of their training programme ahead of competing for a place in the team that will represent the UK at WorldSkills at Leipzig in 2013, the world’s largest international skills competition.

Squad UK members who did not compete at EuroSkills will take part in other competitions and industry events in the hope of gaining a place in Team UK.

The National Apprenticeship Service manages the UK’s entry into WorldSkills and EuroSkills under the name of WorldSkills UK.

By running WorldSkills UK national competitions and entering international skills competitions, the National Apprenticeship Service is able to reward real talent and drive up levels of expertise in apprenticeships, skills and further education.

In Belgium the UK squad won three Golds, a Silver and two Bronze medals, as well as 11 Medlas of Excellence.
Jaine Bolton, Chief Operating Officer of the National Apprenticeship Service said: “Congratulations to Squad UK. Their fantastic performance at EuroSkills Spa 2012 has shown how talented our apprentices and young people are.

“We want Squad UK’s performance at EuroSkills to inspire our young people, just like the Olympics did, and show them that Apprenticeships can lead to rewarding and successful careers.”

The success in Belgium came after Weymouth College students had swept the board at the SkillBuild contest in Preston last month (12-14 September).

The gold medal went to Thomas Whitehead, who has a hat-trick of successes in the UK Masonry Skills challenges to his name.

Thomas, who lives in Weymouth, is employed by Albion Stone Plc at Portland and has also achieved success in previous SkillBuild contests.

In 2010 he won the event at his first attempt and last year came third saying “I put too much pressure on myself.
“I knew this year was my last competition because I finished my apprenticeship in the summer and I just went for it with the view that I had nothing to lose,” he said.

Runner up in this year’s SkillBuild competition was Edward Shaw, who works for Chichester-based Cathedral Works Organisation Ltd.

In third place was Darek Malecki, who works for Wells Cathedral Stonemasons Ltd in Cheddar. All three studied at Weymouth College.

SkillBuild is the largest multi-trade competition in the country for construction trainees and apprentices.
Organised by the Construction Industry Training Board the event is divided into ten building craft sections.