Twelve young men and women from across the UK have secured a place in the national final of the Crown Trade Apprentice Decorator of the Year competition which takes place at Coleg Menai’s Construction Campus in LLangefni, Wales from 8-10 September.

Crown Trade’s long established vocations skills event for newcomers to the industry is an integral part of Skillbuild, the largest multi-trade competition in the country for construction trainees and apprentices. While Crown’s decorating finalists are battling with brushes to win the Apprentice Decorator of the Year title in this September, their peers from other parts of the construction industry will be taking part in similar Skillbuild competitions in cabinetmaking, dry walling, plastering, stonemasonry and a host of other crafts.

Like other finalists heading for the national Skillbuild event, Crown Trade’s contestants have already proved themselves to be among the country’s most talented construction trainees and apprentices at one of fifteen regional events held during the spring and summer months. They achieved the highest marks overall when the scores from all the events were amalgamated.

Crown’s competition manager Kevin O’Donnell said: “We’ve had a fantastic level of entries this year, and not just in the main event which leads to the national final, but also at the ‘new entrant’ level where those at the very start of their career can gain valuable experience of competing in a vocational skills contest, but without having any real pressure put upon them.

“We were particularly pleased with the turnout in Scotland where we had the highest number of entrants we’ve ever had in a regional decorating competition! Fifty young people came along to South Lanarkshire College to take part which was fantastic.”

Kevin was also pleased to see a lot of familiar faces amongst the competitors in the regional heats: “Lots of ‘new entrants’ from previous years graduated to the ‘senior’ event, knowing what to expect. We also saw lots of ‘senior’ competitors returning for their second and third attempts, each time full of fresh determination to progress further than they did the year before. It goes to show the high regard that apprentices, their tutors and their employers have for this very special competition.”

Whilst the Crown Trade Apprentice Decorator of the Year title and trophy carry plenty of kudos on their own, there are additional financial rewards for the three decorators who most impress the judging panel at Coleg Menai. Crown Trade will present the winner with £1000 and the runners up with £500 and £250.

There’s a further very important reason why Crown’s competition attracts so many entrants. Success in the regional heats and/or national finals gives winners (meeting certain age criteria) the opportunity to challenge for a place in the UK team that goes forward to compete at WorldSkills, the largest international vocational skills competition in the world. Crown Trade’s decorators will be hoping to emulate former winner Mark Nevin who went on to compete at the 2009 WorldSkills competition in Calgary, Canada. After four days of tough competition against the very best young decorators from around the world, Mark brought home the gold medal in his craft and was also crowned ‘Best in Nation’ after scooping the highest score in the UK Team.”

Mark who will be an apprentice judge at the final of Crown Trade’s competition this year commented: “The Crown Trade competition instils a discipline in you - to get the basics absolutely right at the outset and to then to carry on paying attention to detail at every stage of the project. It was a great foundation for all the competitions that have followed, none more so than WorldSkills. My motto is: stay completely focussed all the way through. If you don’t have the mindset to win, you won’t!”