| Simon Banks, Commercial Director of CSL DualCom announced the 2011 competition |
At this year's Security Excellence Awards, the Apprentice Skills Challenge was re-launched and re-branded as the Engineers of Tomorrow. The competition is held every year at the IFSEC trade exhibition and challenges apprentice engineers from the UK’s leading Fire & Security companies to pit their skills against one another to win a cash prize and the title of UK Security Apprentice of the Year. The 2011 competition was announced by Simon Banks, Commercial Director of CSL DualCom, the event’s main sponsor.
The announcement was welcomed by the Security Industry and supports a trend that has seen apprenticeships increase in popularity. CSL DualCom, along with fellow patrons Skills for Security, NSI and the SSAIB have supported IFSEC organisers UBM in their decision to give the competition a face-lift. David Greer, Chief Executive of Skills for Security, one of the leading UK apprenticeship providers commented 'Our apprenticeship schemes have remained popular because we consistently achieve a high pass rate and take the burden of administration away from the Installers, allowing them to concentrate on running their companies and developing their business.'
This year's winning apprentices, Daniel Boyes and Mike Barnett of Chris Lewis Fire & Security attended the Security Excellence Awards at the Park Lane Hilton where they were presented with their prize cheques of £500 each by Simon Banks. CSL DualCom have promoted the importance of apprenticeships for maintaining professionalism in the industry. Banks stated ' If I was presented with two Alarm Engineers, comparable in every way, but one had taken a solely academic education route based entirely on theory and the other an apprenticeship with hands-on experience, I would sway towards the apprentice. In fact CSL are in the process of recruiting two apprentices at the moment.'