Six of the seven girls competing in Semta’s engineering competition made it onto the podium at the event, held at Birmingham’s NEC. Katie Goodwill (Rolls-Royce) and Christine McDowell (Belfast Metropolitan College) won gold, Eva Blessing Onyelou (Middlesex University) and Hannah Frost (UTC Sheffield) took silver, while Nicole Catney (Belfast Metropolitan College and Kendal Irvine (JCB Transmissions) won bronze. They beat off over 110 other regional heat winners for their medals, and were among more than 500 people who took part in competition covering 61 different skills over three days in front of thousands of visitors.
Independent judges assessed the work of competitors and the winners were presented with their medals at a medal ceremony on the last day of the show.
Ann Watson, chief executive of Semta, organisers of 13 of the engineering competitions on behalf of WorldSkills UK, said: “It is fantastic to see so many young engineers being recognised for excellence and especially pleasing to see more girls than ever before making it onto the podium in our competitions. To compete in front of tens of thousands of visitors and then win a medal is a tremendous achievement.”
