Now in its 29th year, our Crown Trade Young Decorator contest encourages newcomers to the industry to achieve their full potential in the competitive arena and gives them a great opportunity to prove to their tutors, employers, friends and family exactly what they are capable of.
If you have a talented apprentice on your payroll and think he or she would benefit from getting involved in competitive decorating events there’s no better place to start than the Crown Trade contest. Our event is run in conjunction with Skillbuild which means that it is one of an impressive raft of vocational skills competitions organised with the backing of the CITB, The Department for Education & Skills and UK Skills. The Crown Trade event also has the support and official endorsement of the PDA and the SDF.
Regional competitions are held at colleges all across the country and whilst young decorators are wielding paintbrushes and masking tape in one area, their peers from other construction related trades are simultaneously taking part in their own skills contests on the same campus. The winners from all the regional events go forward to a very impressive three-day national Skillbuild final in October. This year it will be hosted by Leeds College of Building.
Now is the time to submit applications for the 2008 regional heats. Anyone studying NVQ (or SVQ in Scotland) at level 2 or 3 may enter, provided that they were 21 or under on January 1st 2008. They don’t have to be in employment. For those who aren’t quite ready for the full-scale competition we also offer an opportunity to get involved at ‘entry level’. At each regional venue decorating students and apprentices who are very new to the industry can take participate in a pressure-free and supportive environment, simply to gain experience. Many of these people enjoy the experience so much that they come back the following year to take part in the full competition.
There are very tangible benefits for participants and their employers. Tutors inevitably give extra coaching to those entering our competition and the Crown Trade technical team gives full support to competitors at every stage during the contest. This means skill levels increase, new techniques are learned and confidence levels are boosted, often immeasurably. Companies who have encouraged apprentices to take part tell us that their young decorators return more accomplished, more self-reliant and more confident. There are financial rewards to be gained too. In addition to handing over the prestigious Crown Trade Young Dceorator title trophy for a year we give £1000 prize money to the winner of the national final. The first and second runners-up are also presented with cheques for £500 and £250.
There is still plenty of time to enter all this year’s regional events so please urge your apprentices to take part. We had a record year in 2007 with more contestants then we’d ever had before. With your support we’ll be able to make our 2008 even bigger and better still.
Country/Region
Centre
Date
North West
Preston College
Wednesday 16 April
West Midlands
Stoke on Trent College
Friday 18 April
East Anglia
Otley College
Wednesday 23 April
South East
Sussex Downs College
Friday 2 May
London
Acton & West London College
Wednesday 7 May
Southern
Thames Valley University
Friday 9 May
Scotland
Dumfries & Galloway College
Wednesday 28 May
Northern Ireland
CITB , Nutts Corner Training Centre
Thur 29 & Fri 30 May
East Midlands
Burton on Trent College
Friday 6 June
Wales
Coleg Ceredigion
Wednesday 18 June
South West
Somerset College of Arts & Technology
Friday 20 June
North East
City of Sunderland College
Wednesday 25 June
Yorkshire
Huddersfield Technical College
Friday 27 June
NATIONAL FINAL
LEEDS COLLEGE OF BUILDING
1 – 3 OCTOBER
For application forms and further information, please contact Skillbuild on 01323 645882. Website: www.skillbuild.org. Alternatively you may obtain application forms (for the decorating contest only) from the Crown Trade Customer Relations Team, tel: 0845 389 9583
