A BRIGHT spark from Penryn is celebrating an electrifying medal win at a National Skills competition in Birmingham.

Matthew Fletcher, an apprentice electrician from Addinalls Ltd in Penryn who trains at Cornwall College St Austell, picked up the Silver medal at the SkillELECTRIC competition at WorldSkills, UK Skills Show last week, which took place at the NEC in Birmingham.

To reach the national final, Matthew, 31, first had to win the South West Regional Skill Electric competition in May 2012, where he battled it out with other finalists from colleges across the south of the country at Bridgwater College on 16 May to be named the region’s best apprentice electrician.

This qualified him for the national final where ten of the best apprentice electricians in the UK were put to the test.

Over three days the finalists faced a complex challenge in their own installation bay; to install four different circuits, within the time limit, safely and to recognised industry standards, with a very small tolerance for any errors.

Matthew’s attention to detail, methodical approach and high level of skill ensured that he picked up a silver medal, beating competitors from across the whole of the UK.

Matthew said: “I really enjoyed the competition and the opportunity to meet other apprentices. The South West finals in Bridgwater were really nervewracking, but doing well there really prepared me for the final in Birmingham and built up my confidence.

“Addinalls Ltd and my college tutors have been really supportive of me throughout my apprenticeship training and through this competition which has helped me to succeed. In the future I’d like to keep involved with this competition, either as a volunteer at the event or by supporting other younger apprentices in my business.

“I will be supporting our other apprentices so they can hopefully enter in the future.”

Alex McDonald, Director at Addinalls Ltd also attended the competition to support Matthew. He said: “Matthew is an extremely modest young man who arrived to us with an inherent capacity for understanding and applying his trade.

“It has been a pleasure working with him and watching him develop into the skilled exponent of his trade and valued team member we have today.”

The Skills Show is the feeder route for competitors to potentially go forward and represent their country at the biennial WorldSkills competition – the world’s largest skills competition.

The next WorldSkills event takes place at Leipzig in German in July 2013.

If you would like to find out more about apprenticeship training at Cornwall College Business visit www.cornwall.ac.uk/business or call 0800 731 7594.