Modern Apprentice electricians from Edinburgh, Borders, Fife, West Lothian, Dundee and Angus and Perth Colleges joined Forth Valley College MAs, at the East of Scotland Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT) regional heat at the Falkirk Campus recently.
The state-of-the-art electrical work-bays in the Falkirk Campus superworkshop hosted the event on Tuesday 10 June, featuring seven first and seven second stage apprentices battling it out to take the top prize on the day.
FVC’s best first and second year apprentice from this session 2024/25 – Kayleigh Mealing and Stephanie McCormick, were joined by their peers from various colleges to compete in their groups in an extensive practical competition in a three hour morning and lunchtime session. This involved the MAs building a functional electrical installation.
Following a well-earned lunch the apprentices then completed a theoretical challenge over an hour to put their knowledge to the test. Once all the judging had taken place a prize giving and certificate presentation was held in a Falkirk Campus classroom.
Kayleigh and Stephanie did themselves and the College proud but the winners on the day were James Woodhouse (1st Stage Apprentice) from UHI Perth and Rhys Howley (2nd Stage Apprentice) from Borders College. The certificates and prizes were presented by SECTT CEO Fiona Harper.
The winners from each of the three competitions – North UHI Moray College (3 June), East FVC Falkirk Campus (10 June) and West West College Scotland in Paisley (24 June) - will go forward to compete for the right to represent Scotland at the UK leg of the Skill Electric competition and possibly the international World Skills Olympics.
William Forrest, FVC’s Operations Manager in the Department of STEM and Construction, said: “We were honoured to host the SECTT regional East Heat on Tuesday 10 June and it was great to see so many talented apprentice electricians show what they can do under competition conditions. The competition was very tight and these are the best apprentices in their industry across the East of Scotland. Our own MAs Kayleigh and Stephanie did very well indeed and they should be very proud of themselves for their efforts, as I know I and my colleagues are very proud of watching them compete.
“A big well done to James and Rhys, we wish them well in the final.”
