Trane trio in skills final

The three Trane apprentices are North Glasgow College/BEST students Stewart Bothwell and Scott Wearing and Joseph Conroy of Eastleigh College/ECTA. The other finalists are Umesh Kara of Climate Control (South East), studyng at the College of North West London; Gavin Murray of Montgomery Refrigeration, a student at South East Regional College; Chris Bailie of BL Refrigeration, studying at South East Regional College.

All will now go head-to-head in a three-day practical task at the Skills Show from November 14 to 16 at the NEC in Birmingham.

Contestants will have to tackle the complex installation and commissioning of a refrigeration system into a simulated cold room in the quest to be crowned SkillFridge champion.

SkillFridge is organised by SummitSkills, the Sector Skills Council for building services engineering.

“Based on the standard witnessed in the heats we’re expecting this to be the most competitive UK final we’ve seen so far,” said Neil Collishaw of SummitSkills.

“With the Skills Show this year hosting even more competitions over a larger area, the stage for SkillFRIDGE is really exciting and a once in a lifetime chance for the competitors to demonstrate their skills to a huge audience.”