Top 8 SkillPLUMB Competitors Named

The eight student plumbers who scored most highly across the SkillPLUMB 2026 national qualifying heats have been named:

• Bikesh Limbu – HM Royal Engineers
• Daniel Young – Coleg Meirion Dwyfor
• Georgia Greenfield – London Southbank Technical College / Robson
• Harvey Cooper – Oxford Energy Academy / Uni Plumb
• Hudson Denner – Coleg Y Cymoedd / JD Property Renovation
• Kai Gray – UHI Moray / Cowie Plumbing & Heating
• Lewis Wallace – New College Durham / DW Plumbing & Heating
• Tristan McGrath – South West College / DH Mechanical & Ventilation

All have now been invited to go head-to-head across the week of 16th November at Bridgend College for the SkillPLUMB 2026 UK Final. In total around 50 WorldSkills UK National Finals will be taking place that week at different venues across South Wales.

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.

In addition, 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.

“Congratulations to all of this year’s SkillPLUMB finalists on reaching the national final,” said Neil Collishaw, BPEC CEO. “The standard throughout the qualifying heats has been outstanding, making this a fantastic achievement. I’m looking forward to seeing the competition first-hand in Wales this November and watching these talented learners showcase their skills. My thanks also go to our valued SkillPLUMB sponsors, whose continued support is instrumental in helping us deliver the competition. We wish all of our finalists the very best of luck.”

For more information on the competition visit our SkillPLUMB pages