Posted: 19/06/15
Technical students head to national competitions
A day of technical competitions challenged four students from West Nottinghamshire College at a regional contest last week – and saw two come out tops!
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(lr) Andy Gardner, tutor Aaron Hulka and Kalum Pepperday
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Andy Gardner works on configuring a Windows server
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Kalum Pepperday rebuilds a PC
The regional heats of the World Skills IT competitions were held at Bedford College on Friday (12 June) and saw BTEC Diploma in IT students Andy Gardner, Michael Dodds, Kalum Pepperday and Callum Key putting their skills to the test in the IT Support Technician and Network System Administrator categories of the competitions respectively.
Coming first in the Network System Administrator challenge was Andy Gardner, 18, who was challenged to set up and configure a Windows server operating system, including group policies, printer services, user accounts and additional services such as remote desktop.
Taking the first place position in the IT Support Technician challenge was Kalum Pepperday, 17, who was asked to build computers, configure an operating system and other software, create basic networks and link communication across computers.
After scooping first places in the day-long competitions, which saw them competing with six other students from other colleges in the region, Andy and Kalum could attend Birmingham NEC in November to undertake similar challenges against seven other competitors from across the UK during the Skills Show.
If their skills prove to be the best then they will stand a chance of being recruited into the WorldSkills UK team and go on to compete in the WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
Tutor Aaron Hulka said: “I’m so very proud of what these students have achieved. They all put in exceptional effort and they’ve been rewarded justly. They dedicated hours both inside and outside the college, which clearly shows their devotion to the industry.
“They were all in a highly-pressurised situation in which most would crumble, however, they kept their nerve and came out on top.”
Andy, who is going on to Nottingham Trent University to study a degree in computer systems covering forensics and security, said: “The competition was very challenging but enjoyable and the college prepared me well for the event.”
Kalum, who returns to study at the college next year, said: “I was very surprised to have done so well as I missed a few things out of the competition, but I’m really pleased to have completed three-quarters of it and achieved so highly.”
