Technological University of the Shannon (TUS ) will honour its three World Skills Ireland champions and their mentors at a ceremony later this month, following All-Ireland wins for a quarter of the TU’s entries.
The TUS winners won the strongly contested Industrial Control, Industrial Mechanical, and Plumbing categories at the all-Ireland event at this year’s competition in the RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin.
Plumbing apprentice and Ballynacarrigy native, Frank Moffit, took home the gold in the Plumbing category, winning his competition under the mentorship of lecturer Shane Kelly, based on the Athlone Campus.
Conor Grace from Toomevara in Co Tipperary won the Industrial Control competition with the support of Moylish based lecturer Francis Condon. Conor works with the ESB in Nenagh.
Mechanical automation and maintenance fitter apprentice Gary Golden from Swinford, Co Mayo, was also successful. Supported by TUS Moylish Campus Lecturer in the Mechanical & Automobile Engineering Department Keith O’Brien, Gary is employed by Olandi Engineering, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
In total, 12 TUS-based apprentices qualified for the World Skills Ireland finals this year, with a quarter of the entrants bringing home gold. TUS is no stranger to success at the World Skills competition with culinary arts student Jack Rice and mechanical automation apprentice Reece Seery winning their respective categories last year.
TUS is a leading provider of apprenticeship education in both craft and consortia-led apprenticeships, training in the excess of 2,000 apprentices annually across a range of disciplines.
Congratulating this year’s winners, their mentors and employers, TUS President Professor Vincent Cunnane highlighted the importance of craft and consortia-led apprenticeships to the regional economies.
“TUS continues to futureproof apprenticeship capacity and recognises the need for qualified workers and people who are highly and technically trained in areas with future skills needs.
“We are already catering for the significant increased demand for apprenticeships nationally. Earlier this year we opened a new state-of-the-art apprenticeship facility on our Athlone Campus, which will create active learning space for up to 1,000 apprentices a year, almost doubling the campus’s existing capacity.
“With the opening of our new Coonagh Engineering Campus we will be able to increase our apprenticeship intake to 1,900 in Limerick, all the while we are also developing new apprenticeships up to level 9 for 2024,” Professor Cunnane stated.
