To celebrate the National Association of Shopfitters’ Centenary Year, our #NAS100ApprenticeshipCompetition took place recently at Leeds College of Building putting the future generation of the construction industry to the test!
The competition was open to apprentices of any age who are undergoing training in the craft of bench joinery or its related activities. The following eight apprentices took part to demonstrate their skills:
George Reshad – Benbow Group
Jack Eggett and Joe Dorsett – Pearl Fit-out
Jamie Couper – Tekne Shopfitting
Niall Smith – A Edmonds & Co Ltd
Ryan Taylor and William Grainger – Three-Met Shopfitters Ltd
Tommie Robinson – McCue Crafted Fit.
Prior to the competition, the apprentices were sent the challenge brief and travelled to Leeds for a health and safety briefing on 19 June. Thursday 20 June was the big day, where the apprentices spent a challenging eight hours completing their piece and were judged on a variety of skills.
These included the completion of dovetail half lap joints, through mortice and tenon joints, traditionally fixed open mortice joints, blind mortice joints, frame assembly, cutting and fitting of ironmongery, moulding, and preparation for polishing. Also taken into consideration were the accuracy of construction, and the interpretation of drawing and supporting information.
Throughout the day, three judges observed the apprentices at work and had the tough decision of picking the award winners. A big thank you to James Coker, NAS Honorary Member, Claire Williams from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and Lyndsey Montgomery from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) for giving up their time to travel to Leeds to be on the judging panel!
Following the competition, the apprentices were able to unwind and enjoy a celebratory BBQ enjoying the views of the city from the roof terrace of Angelica Restaurant. We’d like to extend a further congratulations to the winners who were announced at the evening event:
Winner – Ryan Taylor, Three-Met Shopfitters Ltd
Runner up – George Reshad, Benbow Group
Highly Commended and winner of the John Rabey Award – William Grainger, Three-Met Shopfitters Ltd.
Ryan came away with a cash prize of £500 and Makita tools valued at £800, and George received £250 and Makita tools to the value of £400, all tools donated by our kind sponsor, Brandon Hire Station. The top two places also received a trophy, with all of our hardworking apprentices given a Certificate of Attendance to mark the occasion. The John Rabey Award was presented to William whose performance in the competition was judged to be of special measures.
Judge and NAS honorary member, James Coker, said: “It was an absolute pleasure to be involved with the Centenary Competition…the quality of the pieces we adjudicated on was exceptionally high as were the performance times, in particular the winners time.”
A big thank you to the CITB and Brandon Hire Station for sponsoring the event, to Chilworth Timber for generously providing the materials used in the competition and Leeds College of Building for hosting the event. And to the apprentices – thank you for your hard work on the day, you are a great credit to our industry!
To see photos from the event, check out our Facebook album.
