Chesterfield students take WorldSkills gold

Two Chesterfield College students – Shawn Dyson and Michael Massey – have taken gold in the auto body repair and auto refinishing categories, respectively, at the WorldSkills UK Competition 2016.

Shawn employed by Chartwell Group and Michael who works for Alton Cars Ltd are both students at Chesterfield College – winners of bodyshop magazine’s education award 2015.

CEO of Chartwell Group, Chris Birghtmore said, ‘Well done to all who took part and especially Shawn, I am very proud of what he has achieved.’ Neilson Jones, group commercial director at Alton Cars Group, commented, ‘Mike has done exceptionally well and we’re very proud to have this sort of young talent in the ranks.’

The pair were two of 24 automotive competitors who competed in front of 80,000 visitors across four work streams – auto body repair, auto heavy vehicle engineering, auto refinishing and auto tech – to win the title of best automotive apprentice in their field.

Harry Garraway trained at VW Group Apprentice Programme and employed at the Heritage VW Van Centre took gold in the auto tech category, whilst Shaun Richards who is trained at Scania (GB) Ltd and employed by Scania Heathrow took gold in the auto heavy vehicle engineering.

Davie Massie MIMI, skills competition manager at the IMI, the competition organising partner, said, ‘We have seen some outstanding young talent stretched to their limits over the duration of our national finals and each one can be proud of their performance. The four gold medallists showed they have the skills, knowledge and aptitude to cope with the challenges we set them under exceptional circumstances. Each one proved they are worthy champions and real ambassadors for our industry.’

The winners now have a chance to represent the UK at the ‘Olympic Games’ for skills, the WorldSkills event in Russia in 2019.