The WorldSkillsUK (WSUK) vocational exhibition at the NEC Birmingham attended by more than 80,000 young people has held its first Electronic Security Systems Competition. Hosted by Skills for Security, six of the best apprentices from across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland competed over a two day competition with the eventual winner being crowned WSUK champion.
Organisers reported that the apprentices, pictured, completed tasks only found in an exceptional engineer and aimed to raise the standard of training and engineering in the UK. Apprentices on day one installed and commissioned intruder alarms; and on day two, carried out a remote maintenance via cloud software, where they identified and rectified faults within the system before proceeding with the completion of a full preventative maintenance on an intruder alarm and CCTV system. The competition winner was a former finalist of IFSEC’s annual Engineers of Tomorrow competition; Fraser Armstrong from Specialised Fire & Security, representing Belfast Metropolitan College.
David Scott, Managing Director, Skills for Security, said: “The last few days have been an excellent opportunity to showcase a career in electronic security engineering and we congratulate the finalists and eventual winner Fraser Armstrong. There are 70,000 young people who attend WSUK and if we can attract one percent of these people we would be able to double the number of apprentices currently in the industry right now. There is currently a skills shortage in our industry, so now is the time for companies in the sector to take on an apprentice and for young people to be aware of an excellent opportunity to build a rewarding career in our industry.”
The competition was sponsored by Skills for Security, and security product manufacturers CSL Group, Hikvision, and Texecom Ltd.
About the show
More than 500 apprentices and students competed in 70 disciplines; from bricklaying and carpentry to forensic science, welding and web design. In cyber security, winners were Stefan Bargan and Luke Jowett of Walsall College. Silver went to Glasgow Clyde College’s Stuart Mcadam and Alastair Dunwoodie; and bronze to Jamie Wilson and Cameron Mcknight of Belfast Metropolitan College.
