Jamie Fineren wins National final of the SkillBuild Dry walling competition

Jamie Fineren from British Gypsum stormed to victory last week at the UK’s first ever Dry Walling skill competition final.

Held at Oaklands College, St. Albans, the final was the last stage in a national competition to find Britain’s best dry waller and is part of the annual national SkillBuild competition run by ConstructionSkills, the UK’s Sector Skills Council for the construction industry.

SkillBuild represents a wide range of construction trades and is open to trainee tradespeople throughout the UK. Heats are run throughout the UK and culminate in a national final bringing together the best competitors in a head-to-head contest.

Jamie Fineren and the two runners-up James O’Reilly and Craig Britmell all scored enough points to get the chance to be selected for the UK team representing Britain in the international WorldSkills final to be held in London in 2011.

Justin Brimmer, Lecturer in Plastering, Oaklands College, commented: “As proud hosts of the first ever SkillBuild competition final for Dry Walling, we are very excited to see standard of the UK’s trainee trades people. We wish the winners every success in their bid to represent Britain in 2011.” Heather Bliss, SkillBuild 2010 competition manager said: “The final was a fantastic competition.

The six finalists excelled themselves and Oaklands College has set a high benchmark for future dry walling competitions.” Although this is the first year that dry walling has formed part of SkillBuild, last year more than 1,300 trainees took part in the national competition. SkillBuild is part of the WorldSkills UK competition framework -a series of around 70 quality assured skills competitions which take place in a diverse range of sectors, from the built environment to cultural and creative arts.