SNIPEF has welcomed the return of their annual SkillPLUMB competition after a two-year hiatus.

The annual skills competition, held at Glasgow Clyde College, is designed to promote standards and skills across the plumbing industry, developing competence into excellence. The competition sees talented young plumbers test their expertise on a series of challenging practical tests in a bid to be named the SkillPLUMB UK champion.

The action-packed day saw a total of 24 apprentices from colleges and training centres across Scotland all competing for the top prizes in the lead and copper competitions.

The SkillPLUMB enables apprentices to showcase their skills and knowledge of the plumbing profession, with the aim of having industry experts, assess an individual's knowledge, practical skills and employability attributes against set criteria in a competitive timed-environment.

The WorldSkillsUK 2022 National Finals event will take place this November at six colleges across the four nations of the UK testing sixty-three skills. As the Scotland regional heat for SkillPLUMB, the highest-scoring competitors in the copper competition are in a more advantageous position to go onto represent Scotland in this competition in the Autumn.

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The structure of the day and competition had the competitors with three hours to complete practical exercises in copper pipework or lead work before their work was to be critiqued assessed and marked by a panel of technical experts. The judges of the lead competition were Alan Marshall, Associated Lead Mills, Robin Hall, SNIPEF Past President and George Todd, SNIPEF Technical Advisor. The judges of the copper competition were John Docherty, SNIPEF Junior Vice-President, Paul Dodds MBE, UK Skills, Mally Butters, British Plumbing Employers Council (BPEC) and Martyn Raine, SNIPEF Technical Manager.

Competitors on the day were supported by their lecturers, employers, families and friends. Jamie Hepburn MSP Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training also attended as the SkillPLUMB competition's guest of honour. The day concluded with the SkillPLUMB awards ceremony. The prizes were presented by Robin Hall, SNIPEF Past President and John Docherty, SNIPEF Junior Vice-President.

The SkillPLUMB 2022 competition winners were as follows:

LEAD Winners

• 1st place in the Lead was won by Gregor McNee of Dundee & Angus College who is employed by Tayside Boiler Services.

• 2nd place was awarded to Ryan McCrone of Glasgow Clyde College who is employed by Cruden Building (Scotland) Ltd.

• 3rd place was awarded to Ben Mitchell of West College Scotland (Paisley) who is employed by James Frew.

COPPER Winners

• 1st place in the copper competition was won by Sean Esslemont of Moray College who is employed by McDonald & Munro Ltd.

• 2nd place was awarded to Kayne Forsyth of North East College Scotland who is employed by Camwater Ltd.

• 3rd place was awarded to Jack Forbes of Edinburgh College who is employed by A Alexander & Son (Electrical) Ltd.