A NUMBER of Kendal College students were celebrating after taking part in the finals of the WorldSkills Championships at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham.

Just missing out on the top award in the Video Moving Image category were ‘Team Scafell’ made up of second year Level 3 Film Production students - Josh Coulthard, Natasha Bacon, James Richardson and Jess Pezet.

Team Scafell took home Silver medals for their creative ‘A Day in the Life Of’ film where, rather than focusing on a person, the team pushed the boundaries of the brief to produce a quirky day in the life of a plastic bottle, marshmallow and packet of crisps.

Team Scafell cameras followed the items from initially leaving the shelves of the NEC café, to taking part in various ‘have a go’ activities run by other exhibitors at the event. The plastic bottle was used in a science experiment, the marshmallow as part of the creation of a bridge for an interactive engineering display, and the crisps formed part of a forensic demonstration.

Judges were impressed with the students’ overall creativity and skills and presented silver medals to the foursome.

“It was incredible to experience the sheer amount of pressure, dedication and commitment required to take part," said Jess. "It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and we loved every minute of it."

The event is the nation’s largest skills and careers event with 588 apprentices and learners battling it out in 64 different skills competitions to be named the ‘best of the best’ in the UK at their chosen skill.

Graham Wilkinson, principal at Kendal College, said: “It’s a huge achievement just to make it through to the WorldSkills finals, not to mention then stepping up to deliver excellent performances in such a challenging competition environment.

“Team Scafell exceeded all expectations with their hard work - pulling off exhausting 18-hour days throughout the three-day competition. The students demonstrated dedication, commitment and total professionalism, and richly deserved their silver medal.

"They were just pipped to the post by a team from Nescot College in Surrey who finished second to Kendal College in the same category in last year’s finals. So we’ve already told them to keep the trophy warm for us as we intend to be back to reclaim it next year."

Also successfully making it through to the finals to represent Kendal College, but narrowly missing out on an award, were IT Apprentice Glen Ritchie, in the Network Systems Administator category; and musicians JAWW in the Popular Music category.

JAWW are made up of John McArthur, Adam Wass, William Benson, Eve Chatterton and William Phillips.