SkillPLUMB 2025 UK Finalists Named

The eight student plumbers who scored most highly across the SkillPLUMB 2025 national qualifying heats have been named: 

Top row L-R:

• Alan Francis – East Sussex College Group / SB Plumbing & Heating
• Daniel Roberts – Coleg Y Cymoedd / Gibson Specialist Technical Services
• Dillon Newton – Cornwall College
• Hannah Barrow – London Southbank Technical College / Your Energy Your Way

Bottom row L-R:

• Jack Fenton – Belfast Metropolitan College / Ian Reid Heating Services
• Jackson Gill – New College Durham / CGE Yorkshire
• Thomas Acum – Mid Kent College-RSME / HM Royal Engineers
• Tristan McGrath – South West College NI / DH Mechanical 

All have now been invited to go head-to-head across the week of 24th November at Bridgend College for the SkillPLUMB 2025 UK Final. In total around 50 WorldSkills UK National Finals will be taking place that week at different venues across South Wales. 

The next two highest scoring competitors will act as reserves should any of the Top 8 be unable to compete:

• Brendan Gunn – Mid Kent College-RSME / HM Royal Engineers
• Ciah Hooch Llewelyn Davis – Gower College / Narbeths

SkillPLUMB is organised by industry charity BPEC and is part of the WorldSkills UK competition framework. The event has Ideal Heating as its headline sponsor and is supported by other industry sponsors including Mueller Europe, Monument Tools, DeWalt, APHC, JIB-PMES, SNIPEF, Water Safe, CIPHE, Plumbmaster and McAlpine.

In the quest to be named SkillPLUMB champion, competitors will have to tackle a complex task that involves the installation of a central heating system and hot/cold water system, incorporating a boiler, unvented hot water cylinder and associated pipework and bespoke designed copper radiators. 

Following its introduction to the competition last year, competitors will also be working on a heat pump task developed in collaboration with Ideal Heating.

Those who perform well enough and are age eligible could be in with a chance of competing at WorldSkills 2028 in Aichi, Japan. 

“There’s been a great standard across all heats and so we’re excited to see what’s in store for the final,” said Neil Collishaw, BPEC Chief Executive Officer. “This year we’ve witnessed even greater diversity from our competitors with an increased number of female entrants in the heats and two in our top ten competitors. We wish all our finalists the best of luck and look forward to supporting them in the run-up to the event in November.” 

For more information on the competition visit our SkillPLUMB pages