Apprentice Gets Silver

On Wednesday the 18th November 2015 Stefan anxiously travelled to Birmingham NEC to compete in the National Finals of Skill Build for Painting and Decorating against 11 other people from all around the United Kingdom. All the hard work that he had been putting in had to all come into effect for the next 4 days.

Stefan was handed his brief which was associated around the recent Rugby world cup, he had the rest of that day to prepare in his head how he was going to approach the design the next day.

The morning of Thursday came and he felt sick with nerves it was time to go and show everyone what he was capable of. He had a total of 20 hours to complete the brief. He had to do tasks such as setting out and planning, stenciling, wallpapering and glossing. This might seem an easy thing to do but with 100s of people walking past you and stopping to see what you are doing it was more added pressure for Stefan.

On Friday Stefan had got into the rhythm of what he was needing to do. Keeping up the pace with everyone else Stefan could see the end was close.

Saturday came, this was the most important 4 hours of the whole competition this was to correct anything he thought that was not perfect and it was also the time that he needed to hang his wallpaper. He managed to complete the whole brief to a standard that he was happy with.

On Saturday Evening Stefan along with all the other contestants competing in his trade and other trades were invited to a presentation evening where they were find out who had been placed. It finally came to the painting and decorating medals, Stefan was more anxious than ever, it came to the giving out of the silver medal and Stefan's name were called he was over the moon to get placed never mind get silver place.

Everyone is very proud of him he has put so much effort into competing that he deserves a medal. He is also the first person West Nottinghamshire College to get placed since 2011.

Well Done Stefan!!!