The SkillPLUMB 2025 UK Champion and gold medal winner has been named as Dillon Newton of the Cornwall College Group.
The silver medal was awarded to Jackson Gill of New College Durham and CGE Yorkshire Ltd; while bronze medal went to Jack Fenton of Belfast Metropolitan College and Ian Reid Heating.
Across two and a half days at Bridgend College, competitors had to tackle a complex plumbing installation task and also demonstrate low carbon knowledge in a heat pump task developed in collaboration with Ideal Heating.
The SkillPLUMB final was one of around 40 WorldSkills UK National Finals being held last week across South Wales. Competitors from all events along with their supporters gathered at the WorldSkills UK Medal Ceremony at the International Convention Centre in Newport.
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 Muller Europe, Monument Tools, DeWalt, McAlpine, APHC, JIB-PMES, SNIPEF, Water Safe and CIPHE.
All finalists received a great range of prizes including a framed certificate and engraved trophy, a BPEC training manual; a Grip+ kit and pipe bending machine from Monument Tools, tool prizes from DeWalt, a goody bag from the APHC and a £50 gift voucher.
Speaking of his win, Dillon said: “It feels absolutely amazing to have won. It was the most nervous I’ve been for a very long time but the entire week was such an incredible experience. I’d really like to thanks Dave Hitchens from my college, he helped me perfect the Monument pipe benders and their measure-backs, and he’s also been really supportive throughout the week and for the four years of my apprenticeship. Also thanks to BPEC and all the SkillPLUMB sponsors for giving myself and the other apprentices the opportunity to showcase their skillset.”
Neil Collishaw, CEO of BPEC, said: “Well done to all competitors who displayed some excellent skills over the course of the finals. Our supporters, skills champions and customers were also able to witness their performance firsthand via our VIP event during the week so we’d also like to congratulate the finalists on being fantastic ambassadors for our industry. Thank you also to our host Bridgend College and our sponsors, in particular Ideal Heating for their tremendous support.”
Andrew Johnson, Training and Design Services Director of Ideal Heating, added: “"It was an honour to visit the UK final and see the technical skills demonstrated by our competitors; they really should be proud of themselves. I think it's really important that the industry has somewhere that engineers, and apprentices in particular, can showcase their abilities and work towards excellence.
“Events like SkillPLUMB help them continually practice and harness new skills, whilst demonstrating to others what is possible, helping lift standards and expectations across the board. We were delighted once again to deliver the heat pump task to help start embedding low carbon concepts with the finalists, as they will undoubtedly start to encounter this more in the workplace."
SkillPLUMB is open to plumbing apprentices and Level 2 or 3 plumbing students. Next year’s competition will open in March 2026. To find out more visit www.bpec.org.uk/skillplumb
Photo shows (l to r) Neil Collishaw, CEO of BPEC, Dillon Newton, and Mark Griffin of Ideal Heating