Cardiff and Vale College students win seven medals in Skills Competition Wales IT heats

Students from Cardiff and Vale College have won a gold, three silver and three bronze medals in the Skills Competition Wales IT finals.

The learners were competing against students from across Wales in the contest which feeds into the UK Skills Show and WorldSkills contests.

Tomek Pawelek, 21 and from Cardiff, won gold and Morgan Whithear, 17 and also from Cardiff, silver in the IT Support Technician competition, where their ability to configure IT hardware and software to meet customer requirements was tested.

“I was surprised and very excited to win,” Tomek said. “I had problems at the beginning so I wasn’t expecting it at all but it felt great to do so well.”

In the Coding Skills finals, students had to focus on developing software, debugging, testing codes and creating new applications. They were also required to program a Lego Mindstorms robot. Jake Steen, 18 and from Barry, won silver while Ellis Brown, 18 and from Cowbridge, took the bronze.

Matthew Dean, 18 and from Cardiff, won silver in Network Security and Kyle Wooward, also 18 and from Cardiff, won bronze. The contest involved securing network devices and restricting access of users by employing various policies, testing competitors’ configuration and application skills.

Competitors in Web Design had to design and code a website based on a brief they received on the day of the comptetion. Eighteen-year-old Mateusz Kolacki from Cardiff won bronze.

Cardiff and Vale College Deputy Principal Sharon James said: “Congratulations and a massive well done to our IT learners for doing so well in the finals. Seven medals is quite an achievement and shows how their hard work and determination has paid off.

“Staff from the College’s IT Department have worked tirelessly to train these competitors, enabling them to compete to such a high standard, so I thank them for their effort and commitment. This impressive haul of medals is a testament to that.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

• Photos show: Pic 1 (l-r) Matthew Dean, Kyle Woodward, Tomek Pawelek, Mateusz Kolacki and Morgan Whithear. Pic 2 (l-r) Jake Steen and Eliis Brown
• In 2017 CAVC won the prestigious UK-wide Association of Colleges Beacon Award for its innovative and sector leading junior apprenticeship scheme and in 2016 it won a Beacon award for apprenticeship provision
• Cardiff and Vale College is one of the top companies for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the National Centre for Diversity’s 2016 Top 100 Index. It was also awarded the National Centre for Diversity’s Award for Welsh FE College of the Year 2016
• Cardiff and Vale College was awarded College of the Year at the 2015 and 2016 Insider Business and Education Partnership Awards
• Why not follow the latest updates from Cardiff and Vale College on LinkedIn: CardiffandValeCollege or Twitter: @CAVCEmployers