20-11-2007
UK welding competitor optimistic
News by Adfero for Simply Business - independent providers of business insurance, business finance, landlord insurance, buy-to-let mortgages & commercial mortgages.
Stuart Greer, a welder from Scunthorpe, is representing the UK in an international tradesmen competition called WorldSkills.
The 20-year-old is in Japan with 21 other tradesmen and women and is competing against 850 young contestants from 48 nations for gold, silver and bronze medals.
Mr Greer recently won a UK national welding competition and finished runner-up in contests in Cork and Kansas. At WorldSkills, he will be given 30 minutes to weld together metals using various processes.
"My employers have been great in supporting me and allowing me to train full-time for the competitions," he told the Scunthorpe Telegraph.
"They think I have got quite a good chance to be in the top five in the world."
The WorldSkills project was devised in Spain after the second world war and has been running competitions on an annual or biannual basis since 1950.