Enthusiastic supporter

The SDF is an enthusiastic supporter of this high profile competition and urges members to encourage their young apprentices to take part. Whilst everyone benefits from participating there are potentially very high rewards for those who do well, and for their employers too.  Because Crown Trade’s competition is part of Skillbuild and is linked with UK Skills, the national final can be a stepping stone to World Skills International where young British decorators compete against their counterparts from all over the world.

Chris Blake

In 2006 Chris Blake a young apprentice from Mardon Project Services in Bathgate, got the ‘competition bug’ and never looked back. He won the Scottish heat of the Crown Trade competition, earning a place in the national final in Luton later that year. There he came a close third, receiving £250 prize money from Crown Trade and an invitation from Skillbuild to enter the selection process for World Skills International 2007. He sailed through the elimination rounds and completed an intensive training programme before representing his country at the prestigious competition in Shizuoka, Japan in November 2007. Chris enjoyed and benefited from the experience immensely. He had proved himself to be in the top ten painting and decorating apprentices in the world, a remarkable achievement.

A credit

“I am very proud of Chris,” says his boss Donald MacPhee. “I always knew he had talent but I never realised when he entered the Crown Trade Competition that it was going to be the start of such an amazing journey for him. He has been a credit to his tutor at Edinburgh Telford College, Martin Hobbs, and he has been a credit to everyone at Mardon Project Services.”

Downing Street

On their return from Japan, the members of the national team were invited, together with their employers to attend a special reception at 10 Downing Street.  “It was very gratifying that the Prime Minister personally hosted this reception to congratulate the apprentices and their employers for their achievements,” said Donald. ”He seemed particularly interested in Chris’s success as Mardon Project Services was the only construction company in Scotland to have had one of its apprentices representing the UK in Japan.”

Efforts repaid

“We’ve supported Chris 100% with all his competitions which has required quite a commitment on our part, but we have been repaid many times over,“ said Donald. ”We now have a more confident, skilful, and self-assured employee in the team. We have great plans for him and hope to give him a great deal more responsibility in the company in the near future.”

“Having one of the top ten apprentices in the world on our payroll has also generated a great deal of very positive media coverage for Mardon. This has very definitely generated a lot of new customer enquiries and raised our profile considerably in the local area.”

The future

Donald concluded: “Mardon is committed to developing every member of its workforce and to bringing new blood into the industry. We take on four new apprentices every year and we will certainly continue to encourage them to enter the Crown Trade Young Decorator of the Year Competition.  I would urge any other employer who is serious about getting the best out of their apprentices to do the same.”