Fife College Students Have WorldSkills in the Bag

Talented computing students from Fife College have impressed the judges in a recent WorldSkills competition held in Glasgow.

Four students from the College’s HND Computing: Networking and HND Computing: Technical Support courses travelled to Glasgow Clyde College’s Cardonald Campus to compete in the Scottish heats of the WorldSkills competition.

Grzegorz Szczepanski (31), from Rosyth won a gold medal in the Network Infrastructure Technician (CISCO) category. Jamie Simms (18), from Kirkcaldy won a silver medal in the IT Support Technician and Kenneth Hall (32), from Rosyth won a silver medal in the Network System Administrator category. These students have all recently completed the HND Computing: Networking course at Fife College.

Jordan Jenkins (18), from Glenrothes who has just completed year one of the HND: Technical Support also competed in the competition but unfortunately wasn’t as lucky as the others. However, he commented on how much of a valuable experience it was just to take part and how much he enjoyed the day.

Each student was given an extremely complex and technical task to complete based on a brief which varied depending on the category they were competing in. They worked on their project for two hours in the morning before stopping for lunch and then continued for another two hours.

Grzegorz Szczepanski was given a brief in the Infrastructure Technician (CISCO) category to build a network using a program called Packet Tracer. He was required to use the knowledge and skills he had developed at College to create a professional and intricate network which was at industry standard.

Grzegorz was thrilled when he heard he had won a gold medal and would like to thank his lecturers for their constant support throughout his course and the lead up to the competition. Said Grzegorz: “I was so chuffed to hear I had won a gold medal in my category. The experience was definitely a challenge but was very enjoyable and rewarding as it enabled me to see how much I have learned during my time at College and actually put this knowledge into practice.”

Curriculum Manager for Computing at Fife College, Sharon Burns is delighted with their success. Said Sharon: “I couldn’t be more proud of Grzegorz, Jamie, Kenneth and Jordan. Their passion and commitment was transparent throughout the competition and I would like to congratulate them all on their success.

“Just making it to this national competition is a great achievement and I would like to encourage more students to take advantage of this type of opportunity as it enables you to put the skills you have developed at College into practice and really see how much you have progressed in such a short space of time.”

The students’ success has meant that they are in good stead to progress to the UK finals which will take place later this year.