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Carpentry Apprentice Makes Team UK for WorldSkills

Joe Needham shows off his creation at SkillBuild
Joe Needham shows off his creation at SkillBuild

Former Carpentry Apprentice Joe Needham has been selected for the WorldSkills UK squad after winning silver in Carpentry at SkillBuild in Birmingham.

Carpenter Joe Needham has picked up a silver medal in carpentry at the annual WorldSkills UK competition in Birmingham. Joe qualified for the event after comfortably winning his heat at our Construction & STEM Centre in May and picking up a ‘highly commended’ award at last year’s national competition.

This year, Joe and the other competitors were challenged to build a roof with a gable in 17 hours – a carpentry task involving a lot of difficult angle work.

As Joe was the top performing carpenter under the age of 21, he was selected for the UK team and will now train for the opportunity to compete on the world stage in Kazan, Russia at WorldSkills 2018.

Speaking to Joe, his passion for carpentry and love of competing shines through. “It was brilliant just winning the regionals, let alone getting to the nationals and getting second. It’s a fantastic event and a great experience. The atmosphere is amazing and it’s great to interact with other people. It’s a competition, but everybody is laid back and gets along really well. It was fantastic this year.”

Despite finishing his apprenticeship in June, Joe has continued to be amazingly well supported by his tutor Noel Hall. Noel gave up time on his weekend to help Joe further develop his carpentry.

“Noel Hall has helped me out loads. All of the training, hard work and effort he puts in is unbelievable. He’s gone above the call of duty to help train me up.”

Lloyd Davis, Head of Construction, Stem & Engineering at West London College, said: “Joe is a credit to himself and his employer, and his dedication to furthering his skill base is fantastic. There is a very high calibre of talent at WorldSkills events and it is great to have our students do well there. A lot of credit should also go to Noel, who gave up his time to help Joe and now plans to work with him further to give Joe his best shot at making the final team for Kazan”.

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