Across a wide range of disciplines from Hairdressing, Cookery and Wood Turning, to Custom Car Restoration and Information Technology – a generation of Apprentices were being assessed to find the National Skills Champion for 2019. The National Champion will then go forward to represent Ireland in the World Skills Competition in Kazan, Russia this August. Ireland has always performed well in the World Skills Competition, and judging by the quality of work on display at the RDS this year will be no exception.
There are many new Apprenticeships available to school leavers and mature students, and one that the transport industry focused on was the Logistics Associate Apprenticeship (LAA). The LAA is a joint venture between the Freight Transport Association Ireland (FTAI) and the new Technology University Dublin (TUI). The FTAI’s Project Manager Anna Gorecka was on hand to deal with the many enquiries about the LAA, and it would appear that when the industry has a higher profile people become more interested in joining.
Apart from the many new Apprenticeships developed between Solas and the various industry partners, there was keen interest in one of the more traditional programmes namely the Heavy Vehicle Mechanics (HVM). Denis Brazil from the School of Transport Engineering at the Technological University Dublin explained about the competition, “Six apprentices are presented with a series of tasks to be completed across a range of automotive systems, such as engine, transmission, steering braking, electrical, and diagnostics. From the assessments the overall winner is then decided.”
The winner of the 2019 Ireland Skills Live Logistics Apprentice was Megan Yates of TU Dublin, and the winner of the HVM Skills Apprentice was Daniel Curtin of Athlone IT who is employed by Bus Éireann.
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